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.": 




Qass. 



Book- 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 




WEBSTER ON HIS FARM. 




^ ,'.^.«\'\ '; \ .. .t\": . 



THE YOUNG AMERICAN'S LIBRARY. 

LIFE 



F 



DANIEL AVEBSTER 



THE STATESMAN AND THE PATRIOT. 



CONTAINING 



NUMEROUS ANECDOTES 

Jo 

aBitlj 3lluntratiuiis. 




PHILADELPHIA: 
LINDSAY & BLAKISTON 

1853. 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by 

LINDSAY & BLAKISTON, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 

Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 



STEREOTYPi)!) BV J. FAGAN. T,.>,^r,r,. 

miNTl^D BY C. SIIKRJIAN. 



PREFACE. 



This Life of Daniel Webster is written for the 
young ; and for that reason, as is elsewhere said, 
the events of his boyhood and college-days are 
dwelt upon with more minuteness than those of 
his after life. 

For a man occupying the high place which he 
held in the eye of the nation, his private charac- 
ter was little known. He had not the winning 
address which draws the great multitude. Peoj)le 
did not call him by the familiar terms with which 
popular idols are designated. He was not covet- 
ous of parade and personal attentions. He never 
courted the fashion, or appealed to the prejudice, 

of the hour. He never threw himself upon the 

(iii) 



iv PREFACE. 

wave of popular feeling, to be borne on to distinc- 
tion. He was not calculated to win 

" Golden opinions from all sorts of people." 

He was ambitious. But his was not that 
ambition which desires to make an impression, 
and thus obtain preferment and honor. It was 
that proud ambition which knew his own strength, 
and waited for the world to recognize it. The 
greatest "special pleader" of his day, he was no 
" special pleader" for himself; for he felt his own 
superiority, and his own integrity of motive. He 
could take care of his own honor ; and disdained 
to explain, to excuse, or to apologize, even when 
his friends and constituents saw things from a 
different point of view than that on which he 
stood. 

He waited for the hour when his own country- 
men should do him justice. The hour has come; 
but now — 

" Him nor carketh care nor slander, 
Nothing but the small cold worm 
Fretteth his enshrouded form." 



PREFACE. 



The voice of eulogy falls unheeded on " the dull 
cold ear of death." 

It is due to ourselves that^ as a nation, we 
should know the man who, more than any of his 
contemporaries, raised this people in the esteem 
of the world. It is proper that our young men 
should know him. If they would learn the 
history of their land, they must read his life, and 
study his writings. This little volume is intended 
to place him before them in those aspects of his 
life and character which, in works of higher merit, 
may be overlooked. 

Free use is made of the many biographical, and 
other notices, which have already been pubUshed ; 
and to the respective authors we here make our 
acknowledgments. 



I 
I 



I 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Opening Remarks — The Webster Family — Birth of Daniel— His 
Parents, Brothers and Sisters — His Early Years — Remarks of 
Mr. Hillard — Mr. Webster's Reference to his Birthplace — 
Daniel Webster's first Teachers— Mr. Thomas Chase— Mr. James 
Tappan— Letters of Mr. Webster to Mr. Tappan— The old School- 
master's Recollections of his Pupils — Mr. AVebster's generous 
Presents to his old Instructor — Mr. William Hoyt — Daniel 
Webster's first Copy of the Constitution of the United States — 
Lono" Walks to School — Daniel Webster's Father a natural 

O 

Elocutionist — The Son taught by the Father — Little Dan's 
Reading — Anecdote Page 13 

CHAPTER 11. 

Daniel Webster's Habits as a Boy — His Employments and In- 
dustry — The Saw-mill — Reading while the Saw moved — The 
Bible, Shakspeare, and Pope's Essay on Man — Watt's Hymns — 
Too much Light — The Social Library — Chevy Chase — AVebster's 
manner of Reading — Anecdotes of his Boyhood — Daniel as an 
Office Boy — Latin Grammar — His first intimation that he was to 
go to School — The Journey to Exeter — His Examination by the 
Principal of Phillips Academy — His Diffidence and Application 
— Daniel's marked Success — Returns to Salisbury, and com- 
mences as Schoolmaster — He is placed with Dr. Wood, of Bos- 
cawen — His Emotion upon hearing that he was to be sent to 

College 35 

(vii) 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER III. 

Virgil and Cicero — Don Quixote — Grotius and PufFendorf — A 
long Recitation — Daniel a poor Harvester — A new Impetus to 
his Studies — Advantages of Education in the Olden Time — 
The Journey to Hanover — The true-blue Suit — Storm and Delay 

— Arrival at Hanover — Making Toilet in Fast Colors — Manly 
Appearance, in Spite of Disadvantages — Daniel enters as Fresh- 
man — His Habits while at Dartmouth — His Manner of Compo- 
sition — Fondness for Out-door Exercise — Apostrophes to the Cod 
and the Trout — Mr. Webster and the Farmer — Mr. Webster and 
the Quails — His First Trout 59 

CHAPTER IV. 

Studies of the first two Years at Dartmouth — Young Webster a 
Schoolmaster in the Vacations — His Fondness for a Scholar's 
Life — His desire that his Brother Ezekiel should share his Pur- 
suits — Difficulties in the Way — The Y'oung Men pass a Night 
in considering them — Importance of Ezekiel's aid to his Father 

— Daniel introduces the Subject to the Old Gentleman — The 
Mother called in to advise — Her prompt Decision — Ezekiel enters 
upon a Course of Preparation, and Daniel returns to College — 
Change in his Costume — His Attention, through Life, to Personal 
Neatness — Third Year in College — Mr. Webster takes high 
Rank — Fourth of July Oration in 1800 — Anecdote of General 
Stark 81 

CHAPTER V. 

Specimens of Daniel Webster's College Composition — The Dart- 
mouth Gazette — Man — Essay on Peace — Eulogy on a Classmate 
— AVashington — Later Poetry — "The Memory of the Heart" — 
Mr. Webster an Improvisator — Mr. Webster and the Child — 
Commencement Exercises — Mr. Webster's Disappointment — 
Professor Woodward's Opinion of Mr. Webster — The Pupil's 
kind Recollections — Lessons of Daniel Webster's Childhood, 109 



CONTENTS. IX 

CHAPTER VI. 

Mr. Webster at Fryeburg — His Labors as Assistant Recorder of 
Deeds — His Economy and Prudence — His continued Efforts at 
Improvement — Rev. Mr. Fessenden — Hon. T. "W. Thompson — 
Mr. Webster resumes his Law Studies — Coke upon Littleton — 
Webster upon Coke — Webster as a Collector of Debts — Mr. 
Webster goes to Boston, and enters the Office of Hon. Christo- 
pher Gore — Character of that Gentleman — Mr. Webster's con- 
tinued Industry — He is tendered the Clerkship of a New Hamp- 
shire Court — Under Advice of Mr. Gore he declines it — The 
Astonishment and Chagrin of his Father 124 

CHAPTER VIL 

Mr. Webster admitted to the Bar — Establishes himself in New 
Hampshire — His first cause — Death of his f^xther — A son's 
testimony — The trial of a dumb depredator — Fourth of July 
Oration in 1806 — Opinions of France — Relations of Agri- 
culture and Commerce — Monthly Anthology — Mr. Webster's 
first criminal case — His fatiguing journeys — His abhorrence 
of affectation — Mode of addressing a jury — Admission to the 
Superior Court 145 

CHAPTER VIII. 

The New Hampshire Bar — Mr. Webster and Jeremiah Mason — 
Professional Anecdotes — The Drilled Witness — Webster's Farm 
— Mr. Webster's Marriage — State of the Country and of Parties 

— New England Interests — The Bar as an Introduction to 
Public Life — Mr. Webster in " caucus" — Popular Enthusiasm 

— Mr. Webster's Professional Industry — His Habits of Early 
Rising — His Letter upon the Morning 1G2 

CHAPTER IX. 

Mr. Webster a Candidate for Congress — His account of his Ser- 
vices in the State Legislature — Mr. AVebster elected Represen- 



X CONTENTS. 

tative from New Hampshire — Appointed a Member of the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs — Mr. Webster's First Speech — 
Resolution of Inquiry relative to the Berlin and Milan Decrees 
— Character and Impression of Mr. AVebster's Speech — F^emarks 
upon the Navy and the Embargo — Loss of Mr. Webster's House 
by Fire — Re-elected to Congress — Position of the Country after 
the War — Attitude of the South tow^ards a Tariff — Mr. Webster's 
Course on the Bank and Tariff Questions — Death of Mr. Web- 
ster's Mother 183 

CHAPTER X. 

Mr. Webster's removal to Boston — His entrance upon Professional 
life in that Metropolis — His manner at the Bar — Personal 
Characteristics — Death of his Child — The Dartmouth College 
Case — Mr. Webster as a Constitutional Lawyer — The United 
States Supreme Court — Dartmouth and the Indians — The Nan- 
tucket Friend — Summary of his Professional career 203 

CHAPTER XI. 

The Pilgrim Address at Plymouth — A Prophecy — Its fulfilment — 
Foundation of Bunker-Hill Monument — Completion of the Monu- 
ment — Eulogy on Adams and Jefferson — Other Eulogies — The 
Washington Address, in 1832 — Address at the Capitol enlarge- 
ment — The Trial of the Knapps for the Murder of Captain 
Joseph White — Power of Conscience 223 

CHAPTER XIL 

Mr. Webster's reluctance to re-enter Congress — His Election 
in 1822 and 1824 — Present of an Annuity — Speech upon the 
Greek Question — The Panama Mission — Mr. Adams's Adminis- 
tration — Mr. Webster's Labors in Committee — His Election as 
Senator — Death of his Wife — Webster and Hayne — Death of 



CONTENTS. Xi 

Ezekiel Webster— Nullification — The Bank Question— Faneuil 
Hall Dinner — Visit to England— Mr. Webster as Secretary of 
State — Again in the Senate— Mexican War— Death of his Son 
Edward— Again Secretary— Hulseman— Kossuth 237 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Elms Farm— Marshfield— Close of Mr. Webster's Life— His Illness 
and Death— His Burial— His Will— Religious Opinions — Con- 
clusion OQQ 



i\ 



THE LIFE 



OF 



DANIEL WEBSTEE. 



CHAPTER I. 

Opening Remarks — The Webster Family — Birth of Daniel — His 
Parents, Brothers and Sisters — His Early Years — Remarks of 
Mr. Hillard — Mr. AVebster's Reference to his Birth-place — 
DanielAVebster's first Teachers — Mr. Thomas Chase — Mr. James 
Tappan — Letters of Mr. Webster to Mr. Tappan — The old School- 
master's Recollections of his Pupils — Mr. Webster's generous 
Presents to his old Instructor — Mr. William Hoyt — Daniel 
Webster's first Copy of the Constitution of the United States — 
Lonji: Walks to School — Daniel Webster's Father a natural 
Elocutionist — The Son taught by the Father — Little Dan's 
Reading — Anecdote. 

In a republican country, the circumstances of 
birth confer no claim to honor or distinction ; and 
the descendants of great men and public benefac- 
tors are entitled to no consideration on account of 
their parentage, except so far as the son is per- 

2 (13) 



14 LIFE OF 

mitted to share in the sentiment of gratitude 
due to the father. And, when that son is worthy, 
and honors the memory of his parents by perpetu- 
ating their virtues, he is entitled to an honest 
pride in his ancestry. This is a natural feeling, 
which no political theory can eradicate. But 
w^hen, on the other hand, the unworthy son of a 
worthy parent degrades his family, he meets with 
a contempt proportioned to the esteem in which 
his ancestors were held. This is natural justice, 
which no law of primogeniture can wholly avert, 
and which, in the absence of such laws, is always 
meted out to the transgressor. 

Still, in a biographical work, it is a proper com- 
pliment to the subject to notice his ancestry ; and, 
furthermore, it is useful as exhibiting the circum- 
stances and associations w^hich combined, in early 
life, to form the characters of those who are worthy 
of such commemoration. The family to which 
Daniel Webster belonged was of Scottish origin, 
but the descendants had resided so long in Eng- 
land, previous to their emigration to America, that 
all distinct traces of this extraction were lost. 
Thomas Webster emigrated from Norfolk, England, 
in 1656, sixteen years after the landing of the 
Pilgrims at Plymouth. He settled at Hampton, 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 15 

on the sea-coast of New Hampshire. From him 
descended two of the most remarkable men this 
country has produced; Dr. Noah Webster, the 
author of the American Dictionary of the Enghsh 
language, and Daniel Webster, the distinguished 
statesman, whose life we are about to hold up as 
an example for the emulation of his young 
countrymen. 

Daniel Webster, of the fourth generation from 
the original settler, Thomas, was born in Salisbury, 
New Hampshire, on the 18th of January, 1782. 
His father, Ebenezer Webster, was a soldier in 
two wars — serving as a member of a volunteer 
corps in the French war, which closed in 1763, 
and afterward employing his military experience 
in the protracted struggle which established the 
freedom of the United States of America. As 
commander of a volunteer company he served 
under Stark in the memorable battle of Benning- 
ton, and performed a most important part in that 
engagement. He was present at the battle of 
White Plains, and was distinguished as a popular 
and most efficient commander. He was of athletic 
stature and commanding appearance; having been 
trained in that border school of hardship and 
endurance, which gave to the founders of this 



16 LIFE OF 

Kepublic the physical development which seconded 
their mental and moral strencrth. 

The township of Salisbury was mostly settled 
by retired soldiers of the French war. Ebenezer 
Webster being one of the original grantees, and 
his tract lying in the northerly part of the town- 
ship, his son used to say of him, that, for many 
years, the smoke of his cabin ascended nearer the 
North Star than that of any other of his Majesty's 
New^ England subjects. To the north, as far as 
the boundaries of Canada, all w^as a wilderness. 
Ebenezer Webster settled on this tract in 1764, 
and, very soon after, his wdfe died, leaving five 
children. This family consisted of three sons and 
two daughters. Mr. Webster then married Abigail 
Eastman, of Salisbury, and by this second union 
became the father of three daughters, and tw^o 
sons, Ezekiel and Daniel. Of the sons by the first 
marriage one died young, and the other removed 
to Canada. The third son, Joseph, will be noticed 
in these pages in connection with our subject. 
Ezekiel, the only brother of Daniel by the same 
mother, lived to share the hopes and almost the 
trium^Dhs of the rising statesman; but he died 
tw^enty years before Daniel, all the others, w4th the 
exception of one sister, having preceded him to 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 17 

the grave. That sister, the youngest of the family, 
died in 1831. 

Thus, being the ninth child in a family of ten, 
we may readily infer that his father, a backwoods 
settler, had not sufiicient means to afford any great 
educational advantages to Daniel Webster. But 
he received the tuition of circumstances — adverse 
circumstances — a hard discipline to undergo, but 
productive of solid and enduring results. An 
eloquent writer, in noticing the early years of the 
distinguished statesman, says: "Daniel Webster 
was fortunate in the outward circumstances of his 
birth and breeding. He came from that class in 
society whence almost all the great men of Ame- 
rica have come, — the two Adamses, Washington, 
Hancock, Jackson, Jefferson, Clay, and almost 
every living notable of our time. Our Hercules 
was also cradled on the ground. He had small 
opportunities for academical education. The 
schoolmaster was 'abroad' in New Hampshire; 
he was seldom at home in Salisbury. Only two 
or three months in a year was there a school, and 
that was two or three miles off. Thither went 
Daniel Webster, a brave, bright boy, ' the father 
of the man.' The school-house of New England 
is the cradle of her greatness." 



18 LIFE OF 

Hon. George S. Hilliard spoke as follows, upon 
the occasion of the funeral obsequies of Daniel 
Webster, in Boston, concerning the surroundings 
and associations of the lad, whose fame as a man 
is now spread throughout all the world : " He was 
fortunate in the accident, or rather the Providence 
of his birth. His father was a man of uncommon 
strength of mind and worth of character, who had 
served his country faithfully in trying times, and 
earned, in a high degree, the respect and confi- 
dence of his neighbors ; — a man of large and 
loving heart, whose efforts and sacrifices for his 
children were repaid by them with most affectionate 
veneration. The energy and good sense of Daniel's 
mother exerted a strong influence upon the minds 
and characters of her children. He was born to 
the discipline of poverty, but a poverty such as 
braces and stimulates, not such as crushes and 
paralyzes. The region in which his boyhood was 
passed was new and wild, books were not easy to 
be had, schools were only an occasional privilege, 
and intercourse with the more settled parts of the 
country was difficult and rare. 

" But the scarcity of mental food and m.ental 
excitement had its advantages, and his training 
was good, however imperfect his teaching might 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 19 

have been. His labors upon the farm helped to 
form that vigorous constitution, which enabled him 
to sustain the immense pressure of cares and duties 
laid upon him in after years. Such books as he 
could procure were read with heartfelt avidity, 
and all the powers of his mind devoted to their 
study. The conversation of a household, presided 
over by a strong-minded father, and a sensible, 
loving mother, helped to train the faculties of the 
younger members of the family. Nor were their 
winter evenings wanting in topics which had a 
fresher interest than any which books could 
furnish. There were stirring tales of the Revolu- 
tionary struggle and the old French war, in both 
of which his father had taken a part, with many 
traditions of the hardships and perils of border 
life, and harrowing narratives of Indian captivity, 
all of which sunk deep into the heart of the 
impressible boy. 

" The ample page of Nature was ever before his 
eyes, not beautiful nor picturesque, but stern, wild, 
and solitary, covered with a primeval forest, in 
winter swept over by tremendous storms, but in 
summer putting on a short-lived grace, and in 
autumn glowing with an imperial pomp of coloring. 
In the deep, lonely woods, by the rushing streams, 



20 LIFE OF 

under the frosty stars of winter, the musing boy 
gathered food for his growing mind. There, to 
him, the mighty mother unveiled her awful face ; 
and there, we may be sure that the dauntless 
child stretched forth his hands and smiled. We 
feel a pensive pleasure in calling up the image of 
this slender, dark-browed, bright-eyed youth, going 
forth in the morning of life to sow the seed of 
future years. A loving brother, and a loving and 
dutiful son, he is cheerful under privation, and 
patient under restraint. Whatever work he finds 
to do, whether with the brain or the hand, he 
does it with all his might. He opens his mind to 
every ray of knowledge which breaks in upon 
him. Every step is a progress, and every blow 
removes an obstacle. Onward, ever onward he 
moves; borne against the wind and against the 
tide by a self-derived and self-sustained impulse. 
He makes friends, awakens interest, inspires hopes. 
Thus, with these good angels about him, he passes 
from boyhood to youth, and from youth to early 
manhood. The school and the college have given 
him what they had to give ; an excellent profes- 
sional training has been secured ; and now, Avith 
a vigorous frame and a spirit patient of labor, 
with manly self-reliance, and a heart glowing with 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 21 

generous ambition and warm affections, the man, 
Daniel Webster, stepped forth into the arena of 
life£ 

/ At the time v/hen Daniel Webster was born, 
nearly twenty years after his father's settlement 
in Salisbury, the original cabin had given way to 
a more substantial house. That house has also 
been removed, and the traces of the cellar alone 
indicate the spot where it stood. Near the site is 
an old well, excavated by his father; and the 
premises are sheltered by a giant elm, planted a 
year or two before the birth of Daniel. Under 
this elm Mr. Webster, when a man, and engaged 
in the labors of his profession, or the cares of 
State, always sat at least once in a year, and 
drank of the waters of the well which his father 
had dug. The site of the old house and of the 
log-cabin, the fruit and other trees which his father 
and grandfather had planted, and the many ob- 
jects which recalled the memory of his childhood, 
were to him sources of inspiration. His feehngs 
are well expressed in a speech which he made in 
1840, when General Harrison was a candidate for 
President of the United States. He said : " It is 
only shallow-minded pretenders who either make 
distinguished origin matter of personal merit, or 



22 LIFE OF 

obscure origin matter of personal reproach. Taunt 
and scoffing at the humble condition of early life 
affect nobody, in this country, but those v/ho are 
foolish enough to indulge in them ; and they are 
generally sufficiently punished by public rebuke. 
A man who is not ashamed of himself need not 
be ashamed of his early condition. 

" It did not happen to me to be born in a log- 
cabin, but my elder brothers and sisters were born 
in a log-cabin, raised amid the snow-drifts of New 
Hampshire, at a period so early, that when the 
smoke first rose from its chimney and curled over 
the frozen hills, there was no similar evidence of a 
white man's habitation between it and the settle- 
ments on the rivers of Canada. Its remains still 
exist. I make to it an annual visit. I carry my 
children to it, to teach them the hardships endured 
by the generations which have gone before them. 
I love to dwell on the tender recollections, the 
kindred ties, the early affections, and the touching 
narrations and incidents which mingle with all I 
know of this primitive family abode. I weep to 
think that none of those who inhabited it are now 
among the living ; and if ever I am ashamed of 
it, or if ever I fail in affectionate veneration for 
him who raised it, and defended it against savage 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 23 

violence and destruction, cherished all the domestic 
virtues beneath its roof, and, through the hre and 
blood of a seven years' revolutionary war, shrunk 
from no danger, no toil, no sacrifice to serve his 
country, and to raise his children to a better con- 
dition than his own, may my name, and the name 
of my posterity, be blotted forever from the 
memory of mankind." , 

There were other reminiscences connected with 
a log building, which were dear to Mr. Webster, 
and are interesting to those wdio read his life. The 
first school-house which young Daniel ever entered 
was built of logs, and in this humble building the 
boy studied the rudiments of the education which, 
by the aid of natural talents, seconded by appli- 
cation, made him the great jurist and statesman. 
Daniel's first school experience was not in a public, 
but in a "subscription school," opened at the 
request, and under the patronage of Colonel 
Webster, his father, and other residents in the 
vicinity. The teacher w^as Mr. Thomas Chase. 
Daniel Webster had, however, before entering 
this school, the privilege of the best of teachers, 
his mother. She taught him to read, and the first 
book which he remembered reading was the Bible. 
The mother of Ezekiel and Daniel Webster had a 



24 LIFE OF 

mother's ambition for her children^ and a strong 
mind and capacity to direct them. As Daniel 
was only about four years old when he entered 
this school, much could not have been required of 
the teacher. Daniel appears to have enjoyed ad- 
vantages superior to those of his brothers. Some- 
thing of this was obtained by his early delicate 
appearance, and something, no doubt, by the fact 
that he was the youngest of nine children. His 
brother Joseph used to say of him, in a good- 
humored way, that " Dan was sent to school, that 
he might know as much as the other boys ! " 

Of Daniel's other teachers in his infancy we 
happen to possess some very pleasant memorials. 
One of them, James Tappan, died at Gloucester, 
Massachusetts, since the death of Mr. Webster. 
In 1851 he reminded his distinguished pupil that 
he was still alive, and received from him the 
following letter : 

"Washington, Fch. 2Qth, 1851. 

" Master Tappan, — I thank you for your letter, 
and am rejoiced to hear that you are still among 
the living. I remember you perfectly well as a 
teacher of my infant years. I suppose my mother 
must have taught me to read very early, as I have 
never been able to recollect the time when I could 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 25 

not read the Bible. I think Master Chase was 
my earliest schoolmaster, probably when I was 
three or four years old. Then came Master 
Tappan. You boarded at our house, and some- 
times I think in the family of Mr. Benjamin San- 
born, our neighbor, the lame man. Most of those 
whom you knew in New Salisbury have gone to 
their graves. Mr. John Sanborn, the son of Ben- 
jamin, is yet living, and is about your age. Mr. 
John Colby, wdio married my eldest sister, 
Susannah, is also living. On the North road is 
Mr. Benjamin Pettingill. I think of none else 
among the living whom you would possibly re- 
member. You have, indeed, lived a checkered 
life. I hope you have been able to bear prosperity 
with meekness, and adversity with patience. 
These things are all ordered for us, far better than 
we can order them for ourselves. We may pray 
for our daily bread ; we may pray for the forgive- 
ness of sins ; we may pray to be kept from tempta- 
tion, and that the kingdom of God may come, in 
us, and in all men, and his will everywhere be 
done. Beyond this, we hardly know for what 
good to supplicate the Divine Mercy. Our 
Heavenly Father knoweth what we have need of 
better than we do ourselves, and we are sure that 

3 



26 LIFE OF 

his eye and his loving kindness are upon us and 
around us, every moment. I thank you again, 
my good old schoolmaster, for your kind letter, 
which has awakened many sleeping recollections ; 
and with all good wishes, 

"I remain your friend and pupil, 

"Daniel Webster." 

A correspondent of the Boston Transcript, who 
met Mr. Tappan at Gloucester in the summer of 
1852, gives us the schoolmaster's reminiscences of 
his pupil. " Master Tappan " at that time was in 
his eighty-sixth year, somewhat infirm, but with 
his intellectual faculties bright and vivid, espe- 
cially on the subject of his old pupil, whom he 
esteemed the foremost man of his time, and in 
whose fame he took a justifiable and natural pride. 
"Daniel was always the brightest boy in the 
school," said Master Tappan, " and Ezekiel the 
next ; but Daniel w^as much quicker at his studies 
than his brother. He would learn more in ^ve 
minutes than any other boy would in five hours. 
One Saturday, I remember, I held up a handsome 
new knife to the scholars, and said the boy who 
would commit to memory the greatest number of 
verses in the Bible, by Monday morning, should 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 27 

have it. Many of the boys did well ; but when 
it came to Daniel's turn to recite, I found that he 
had committed so much that, after hearing him 
repeat some sixty or seventy verses, I was obliged 
to give up, he telling me that there were several 
chapters yet that he had learned. Daniel got 
that jack-knife. Ah ! Sir, he was remarkable, 
even as a boy ; and I told his father he would do 
God's w^ork injustice, if he did not send both 
Daniel and Ezekiel to college. The old man said 
he could not well afford it; but I told him he 
must, and he finally did. And didn't they both 
justify my good opinion?" 

The paper containing this notice of " Master 
Tappan" was shown to Mr. Webster, and he 
instantly wrote and despatched the following 
letter to the old 2;entleman : — 

'' Boston, July 20th, 1852. 

"Master Tappan, — I learn with much plea- 
sure, through the public press, that you still con- 
tinue to enjoy life, with mental faculties bright 
and vivid, although you have arrived at a very 
advanced age, and are somewhat infirm. I came 
to-day from the very spot in which you taught 
me ; and to me a most delightful spot it is. The 



28 LIFE OF 

river and the hills are as beautiful as ever, but the 
graves of my father and mother, and brothers and 
sisters, and early friends, gave it to me something 
of the appearance of a city of the dead. But let 
me not repine. You have lived long, and my life 
is already not short, and we have both much to 
be thankful for. Two or three persons are yet 
living, Vv^ho, like myself, were brought up sub tua 
ferula. They remember ' Master Tappan.' And 
now, my good old master, receive a renewed tri- 
bute of affectionate regard from your grateful 
pupil, with his wishes and prayers for your happi- 
ness in all that remains to you in this life, and, 
more especially, for your participation hereafter 
in the durable riches of righteousness. 

^^' Daniel Webster." 

The "renewed tribute of affectionate regard" 
spoken of in the above letter was an enclosure of 
twenty dollars. In the first letter, sent the year 
before, Mr. Webster enclosed fifty. It is pleasant 
to record these evidences of the affection of the man 
for the teacher of his childhood ; and it is useful 
also to notice what appreciation the aged states- 
man had of the services of those who introduced 
him to the first humble acquisitions in the course 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 29 

of education which made him great. We have 
got another memorial of Mr. Webster's early 
teachers, preserved by his private secretary, Mr. 
Lanman. It is a memorandum of his conversa- 
tion respecting Mr. Hoyt. 

"Mr. William Hoyt was, for many years, 
teacher of our county school in Salisbury : I do 
not call it village school, because there was at that 
time no village ; and boys came to school in the 
winter, the only season in which schools were 
usually open, from distances of several miles, 
wading through the snow, or running upon its 
crust, with their curly hair often whitened with 
frost from their own breaths. I knew William 
Hoyt well, and every truant knew him. He was 
an austere man, but a good teacher of children. 
He had been a printer in Newburyport, wrote a 
very fair and excellent hand, was a good reader, 
and could teach boys, that which so few masters 
can or will do, to read well themselves. Beyond 
this, and a very slight knowledge of grammar, his 
attainments did not extend. He had brought with 
him into the town a little property, which he took 
very good care of He rather loved money ; of 
all the pronouns preferring the possessive ; he also 
kept a little shop for the sale of various connno- 

3* 



30 LIFE OF 

dities. I do not know how old I was, but I 
remember having gone into his shop one day, and 
bought a small cotton pocket-handkerchief, with 
a Constitution of the United States printed on its 
two sides; from this I just learned either that 
there was a Constitution, or that there were United 
States. I remember to have read it, and have 
known more or less of it ever since. William 
Hoyt and his wife lie buried in the grave-yard on 
my farm, near the graves of my own family. He 
left no children. I suppose that this little hand- 
kerchief was purchased about the time that I was 
eight years old, as I remember listening to the 
conversation of my father and Mr. Thompson 
upon political events which happened in the year 
1790." 

The Constitution of the United States was only 
ratified in 1789 by the several States, and had 
hardly, at the time when Daniel Webster com- 
menced the study of it, gone into operation. The 
purchase exhausted his juvenile purse; and the 
afternoon and evening of the day on which it 
came into his possession were spent in poring over 
and spelling out its provisions. Little could his 
parents then have dreamed that the thoughtful 
boy was entering upon the course of study, at 



DANIEL AY EBSTER. 31 

eight years of (ige, which should qualify him for 
the title of " Expounder of the Constitution." 

There were three school-houses in the township 
of Salisbury, which were situated several miles 
apart. The hrst was near Colonel Webster's resi- 
dence ; the next at perhaps three miles' distance ; 
the third in the extreme part of the township. 
The teacher divided his time between the three. 
When the school was in the centre school-house, 
young Daniel went in the morning, taking his 
dinner, and returned at night; and when the 
schoolmaster was in the w^estern part of his cir- 
cuit, the young student boarded near the school- 
house, going on foot on Monday morning, and 
returning on Saturday evening. Such disadvan- 
tages, as we should now consider them, were, by 
the youth of that day, considered to be great 
opportunities. 

We have mentioned Daniel's indebtedness to 
his mother for early instruction. It is due to his 
father also to state that his influence and example 
did much for his child. Colonel Webster was a 
man of strong natural talents, and is said to have 
had an intuitive knowledge of the principles of 
elocution. His voice was loud, clear, and musical, 
and his reading and speaking were of the best 



32 LIFE OF 

school of natural oratory. The books he delighted 
to read aloud for the gratification of his family 
and others, were the Bible, Shakspeare, and Pope's 
Essay on Man. To his occupation as a farmer he 
added that of an innkeeper ; a calling which, in 
those days, was held in high respect. The 
Governor of Vermont at that time united the 
vocations of Governor and landlord. General 
Putnam and several others of the Revolutionary 
officers were innkeepers. And when Colonel 
Webster, in 1791, was appointed an Associate 
Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, he still 
continued, for some years, to entertain travellers 
— the gentlemanly host — happy to receive guests, 
who, in his pleasant society, forgot that they were 
not visitors on purely friendly terms. Colonel 
Webster excelled in conversation ; and his know- 
ledge of the Constitution and laws was such as to 
command respect for his opinions. Of course, a 
judge not educated to the law was not expected 
to make decisions on mere technical points; but 
the union of practical business men and farmers, 
with lawyers, upon the bench, has been found to 
have an exceedingly good influence in County 
Courts in rural districts; and, in former years, 



D A N I E L W E B S T E R . 33 

when professional men were rare, was a necessary 
expedient. ' 

With an inherited taste and capacity for elocu- 
tion, and the lessons of his father added to those 
of his teachers, Daniel was the pet of the travel- 
lers who stopped at the inn. As they drew near 
the house, they thought of the young orator ; and 
when they stopped, and the future statesman, 
then a dark-looking boy, had watered their horses, 
or assisted them in helping themselves, the 
teamsters were wont to say, " Now, let us go in, 
and hear little Dan read a Psalm." What primi- 
tive days were these ! And hoAV different a race 
of men were those old backwoodsmen from their 
descendants, who claim to have improved under 
the benefit of modern advantages ! No doubt we 
have gained much, but in the changes of time we 
have lost something too. The teamsters who 
could listen with delight to a Psalm of David, and 
the tavern in which a boy could be educated in 
such tastes, belonged to a more simple, certainly 
a not less virtuous era than the present. 

A few years ago, when Daniel Webster, the 
Senator of the United States, visited the West, a 
citizen of one of the new States, who had immi- 



34 LIFE OF 

grated from New Hampshire^ met him and re- 
membered him. 

" Is this," he asked, " the son of Col. Webster ?" 

" It is, indeed/' was the reply. 

" What," repeated the man, " is this the little 
black Dan who used to water the horses ?" 

" Yes," rejoined the great Daniel Webster, " it 
is the little black Dan who used to water the 
horses." 

He was proud of his history. " If a man finds 
the way alone," says the writer from whom we 
derive this anecdote, " should he not be proud of 
having found the way T 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 35 



CHAPTER II. 

Daniel Webster's Habits as a Boy — His Employments and In- 
dustry — The Saw-mill — Reading while the Saw moved — The 
Bible, Shakspeare, and Pope's Essay on Man— Watt's Hymns— 
Too much Light— The Social Library— Chevy Chase— Webster's 
manner of Reading — Anecdotes of his Boyhood — Daniel as an 
Office Boy — Latin Grammar — His first intimation that he was to 
go to School — The Journey to Exeter— His Examination by the 
Principal of Phillips Academy — His Diffidence and Application 
— Daniel's marked Success — Returns to Salisbury, and com- 
mences as Schoolmaster — He is placed with Dr. Wood, of Bos- 
cawen — His Emotion upon hearing that he was to be sent to 
College. 

The death of no other man in America has 
called out more anecdotes and traditions, than 
were thrown to the world upon the demise of 
Daniel Webster. As remarked in the preceding 
chapter, our desire is to furnish the youth of 
America w^ith an account of those traits of his 
character, which all would do Avell to emulate. 
In doing this, we make free use of whatever has 
fallen under our notice, endeavoring to separate 
the true from the false, and to correct such erro- 



36 LIFE OF 

neous statements as have gained currency, through 
the desire of all to contribute something to the 
common stock of anecdotes. 

The writer of a very interesting article upon 
Webster, in Putnam's Monthly Magazine, opens 
by stating that he had visited the place of his 
nativity, and conversed with the friends of his 
boyhood, corresponded wdth most of his surviving 
classmates and college friends, and examined hun- 
dreds of his letters. As the result of his investi- 
gations the writer has presented us with many 
important facts and conclusions, of which- free use 
is made in this volume, with this general acknow- 
ledgment. 

" Daniel Webster performed the ordinary ser- 
vices of a boy upon his father's farm. His taste 
for agriculture, and his fondness for rural life grew 
directly out of the associations of his childhood. 
Imagine to yourself .a slender, black-eyed boy, 
with serious mien and raven locks, leading the 
traveller's horse to water when he alighted at his 
father's inn ; driving the cows to pasture at early 
dawn, and returning with them at the gray of 
evening ; riding the horse, to harrow between the 
rows of corn at weeding-time, and following the 
mowers with a wooden spreader in haying-time ; 







YOUNG DANIEL IN THE SAW MILL. 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 37 

and you have a true idea of the lad and of his 
duties. In dress, in the means of social and in- 
tellectual culture, his condition was far below that 
of the sons of farmers and mechanics of the 
present day. Many anecdotes have been pu]> 
lished, of his incapacity for manual labor, or of 
his aversion to it. The testimony of his early 
companions and neighbors contradicts, in general 
and in particulars, all stories of his idleness. 

'^He was an industrious boy. He labored to 
the extent of his strength. He was the youngest 
son, and, perhaps, oh that account received some 
indulgences. Men are now living who labored 
with him, in the field and in the mill — who shared 
his toils and his sports. They affirm that he 
always ' worked well and played fair.' Boys in 
those days were usually trained to hard service. 
I have heard Mr. Webster say that he had charge 
of his father's saw-mill, and was accustomed to 
tread back the log-carriage, ^when he was not 
heavier than a robin.' An old schoolmate of his 
told me that the mill was owned in shares, by 
several of the neighbors, who used it in turn. 
Boys were put into the mill to tend it, when it 
required the weight of two of them to turn back 
the ' rag-wheel ' and bring the log-carriage to its 

4 



38 LIFE OF 

place to commence a new cut. He informed me 
that he had labored many a day with Daniel 
Webster, in this old mill, and that his compamon 
was ever ready to do his part of the service. The 
same boy, Daniel, was accustomed to dnve the 
team into the woods, where his elder brother, 
Ezekiel, cut the logs and assisted in loadmg them. / 

This mill has been, of late years, regarded as 
almost classic ground. Mr. Webster, who was 1 
notable for his attachment to the scenes of his 
youth, conducted his guests over the places marked 
in his memory, with honest pride. And the resi- 
dents near these locaUties, admiring the man who 
in his fame never forgot "the rock whence he was 
hewn," gave to the haunts of the « Uttle black 
Dan" a fame and a consequence which is usually 
reserved to be conferred by posterity. General fe. 
P Lyman, for many years the friend and intimate 
of Daniel Webster, gives the following description 
of the place, and notice of its memoirs : 

« In the bed of a Uttle brook, near where Daniel 
Webster was born, are the remains of a rude mill 
which his father built more than sixty years ago 
The place is a dark glen, and was then surrounded 
by a majestic forest, which covered the neighboring 
hills To that mill, Daniel Webster, though a 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 39 

small boy, went frequently to assist his father. 
He was apt in learning anything useful, and soon 
became so expert in doing everything required, 
that his services as an assistant were valuable. 
But the time spent in manual labor was not mis- 
spent as regarded mental progress. After ' setting 
the saw' and Hioisting the gate,' and while the 
saw was passing through the log, which usually 
occupied from ten to fifteen minutes for each 
board, Daniel was reading attentively some book, 
which he was permitted to take from the house. 
He had a passion, thus early, for reading history 
and biography." 

There, surrounded by forests, in the midst of 
the great noise which such a mill makes, and this 
too without materially neglecting his task, he 
made himself familiar with the most remarkable 
events in history, and with the lives and charac- 
ters of those who have furnished materials for its 
pages. What he read there he never forgot. So 
tenacious was his memory, that he could recite 
long passages from books which he read there, and 
scarcely looked at afterward. The solitude of the 
scene, the absence of everything to divert his 
attention, the simplicity of his occupation, the 
thoughtful and taciturn manner of his father, all 



40 LIFE OF 

favored the process of transplanting every idea 
found in these books to his own fresh^ fruitful and 
vigorous mind. 

Books were, however, hard to find in that se- 
questered place ; and the young student, voracious 
of knowledge, was forced to read over and over 
again the old, because he could not obtain new. 
The Bible, Shakspeare, and Pope's Essay on Man, 
we have already mentioned as favorites with his 
father. With the first-named, the first of all 
books, he was very familiar, his early taste for 
poetry leading him to delight in studying the 
poetical portions of the inspired volume. The 
traces of this familiarity with Scripture, common 
to most men of enlarged minds, may be found 
continually in his writings and speeches. Pope's 
Essay on Man he committed to memory on the 
very day it fell into his hands ; before he vvas 
fourteen years of age. When once asked why he 
committed that poem at so early an age, he 
replied, " I had nothing else to learn." 

Since at twelve he " had nothing else to learn," 
we may presume that he had before that com- 
mitted to memory Watts' Hymns and the metrical 
version of the Psalms. He was accustomed to 
say, in his later years, that he could repeat any 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 41 

stanza of Watts, of which he heard the first Ime ; 
so closely did what he had conned in the forest 
adhere to him. He needed to read poetry but 
twice to be able to repeat it. While such a dearth 
of books existed, he conned his father's collection 
over and over. Newspapers were not then flying 
Hke winged seeds of good and evil all over the 
land, and even a new almanac was a treasure. 
Ezekiel and Daniel had frequent disputes, in their 
limited world of literature and knowledge ; and, 
on one occasion, after going to bed, a question 
arose as to something in the new almanac. They 
rose and struck a light to settle the dispute, and, 
in their eagerness and carelessness, set their bed 
on fire. On being questioned the next morning 
as to the cause of the accident, Daniel answered, 
" that they were in pursuit of light, and got too 
much of it." 

Books soon became more abundant. Some of 
the biographers of Webster state that he enjoyed 
access to a "Circulating Library." But the col- 
lections of ephemeral and trifling literature known 
under the name of circulating libraries, and col- 
lected with the purpose of attracting the thought- 
less, and ministering to the folly of readers for 
mere amusement, were at that time almost un- 

4. =i= 



42 LIFE OF 

known ; and we presume that, to this day, there 
never has been such a collection within twenty 
miles of Daniel Webster's birth-place. The library 
to which he had access was what is called a 
" Social Library," collected through the exertions 
of his father, the clergyman, and Thomas W. 
Thom]DSon, Esq., a lawyer. The Social Library 
was divided into shares, at a fixed price, Avhich 
every member of the company paid upon entrance, 
each share entitling the holder to certain privi- 
leges, and being subject to an annual assessment, 
for the purpose of increasing the number of 
volumes. Purchases were made by careful com- 
mittees ; and, although we know nothing of Salis- 
bury Social Library, we venture to say, from our 
knowledge of other similar institutions, that 
young Daniel had a better opportunity for mental 
improvement in this collection, '^fit though few^' 
than the present generation of youth, whose 
spending-money "svill furnish them with pubUca- 
tions too cheap to be good; and too much like 
locust swarms in number to 23ass under the censor- 
ship of their elders. 

One of Mr. Webster's eulogists has remarked of 
him, that "he had read much, but not many 
books. With the best English writers he was en- 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 4 



o 



tirely familiar, and took great pleasure in reading 
them, and discussing their merits." Among the 
books in the library at Salisbury was the Spectator. 
Of this work he was very fond ; and, in after life 
he related a circumstance, which shows how pre- 
dominant was his love of poetry. He said he 
remembered turning over the leaves of Addison's 
criticism of Chevy Chase, to pick out and read 
connectedly the verses which Addison had quoted. 
For recreation and amusement his preference 
settled upon biography and travels ; and this may 
have been a part of his " social library" education. 
The number of such books formed a much larger 
portion of the current publications at the end of 
the last century than at present ; the novel had 
not obtained its present unjust proportion in the 
province of belles-lettres. General Lyman de- 
scribes his manner of reading ten years before his 
death, which indicates the habit formed, when to 
obtain a new book was an event of which he was 
disposed to make the most. He first went over 
the index, and apparently fixed the frame-work 
of it in his mind; then he studied with equal 
earnestness the synopsis of each chapter. Then 
he looked at the length of the chajDter. Then, 
before he began to read it, he took an accurate 



44 LIFE OF 

survey of its parts. Then he read it; passing 
rapidly over what was common-place^ and dwelling 
only on what was original and worthy of note. 

It is not to be supj)osed that Daniel Webster, 
whose playfulness of character remained through 
his life, was different from other boys in his fond- 
ness for amusement in his childhood. And, al- 
though he " played fair and worked well/' he had 
a boy's choice for play above work, which he 
exhibited upon occasion. His surviving school- 
mates deny, however, that his fondness for hunt- 
ing and fishing caused him to play the truant 
from school. They say that he was always pre- 
sent, when the school was open, and always in 
advance of his associates. In the laborious occu- 
pations of the farm there were, of course, some 
things which he could not do. He did not remain 
at home long enough to learn to mow. An anec- 
dote in reference to this has long been stereotyped, 
and current in the papers. His awkward hand- 
ling of the scythe induced several attempts on the 
part of his father to '^ hang" the instrument better 
— that is, to affix it to the handle. But Daniel 
could not be brought to like the " hang," and his 
father told him at last that he must suit himself. 
Hanging it at once upon a tree, he said, " There, 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 45 

father, that's the hang to suit me." To mow re- 
quires a strength and dexterity which are seldom 
possessed by boys of ten or twelve years of age. 
Daniel's wit helped him out on this as well as 
other occasions. The two boys, Ezekiel and 
Daniel were once left a task to perform, in the 
absence of their father. His return showed the 
work still undone. 

" What have you been doing ? " the father asked 
of the elder boy, in a tone of natural vexation. 

" Nothing, Sir," Ezekiel was obliged to confess, 
with the evidence before him. 

" And you, Daniel," said the father, " what have 
you been doing ? " | 

^'Helping Zelce, Sir,^l^ 

The force of logic usually owes much to the 
inclinations of the person who is to be convinced. 
Colonel Webster required that his sons should go 
regularly to church on every Sunday, though the 
distance was about four miles ; and Daniel com- 
plained of the hardship of so long a walk. To 
this the father answered : 

" I see Deacon True's boys there every Sunday 
morning, and I never heard of their complaining." 

" Oh, yes, Sir," answered Daniel, " but the Dea- 



46 LIFE OF 

con's boys live halfway there, and have only half 
as far to walk." 

" Well," said his father, " you may dress your- 
self early, and run up to Deacon True's, and then 
you will have no farther to go than they." 

This was conclusive. To visit Deacon True's 
boys was never a hardship, and Daniel, thereafter, 
was always ready to go early, and walk to church 
with them. 

In 1795, when Daniel was in his fourteenth 
year, Mr. Thompson, the lawyer in Salisbury, in- 
duced him to stay in his office during his neces- 
sary absence, to answer the questions of clients 
and others. His intelligence and his aptitude for 
learning had undoubtedly procured him this pre- 
ference ; and, trifling as the circumstance then 
appeared, it combined with others to rule his life. 
Many lads, in such a place, would have nursed 
habits of idleness, and amused themselves with 
marbles, outside of the door, or invited other lads 
to play with them. Or they would, in these days 
of abundance of bad books, dissipate their time in 
reading piratical romances, or lives of highway- 
men. Mr. Thompson, who knew his lad, furnished 
him with better amusement. He handed him a 
Latin grammar, to fill up his leisure ; and young 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 47 

Daniel committed lesson after lesson, Avith hearty 
good-will ; having no higher immediate object than 
to escape idleness, and gratify Mr. Thompson. 
He had never thought of studying Latin or Greek ; 
and going to college was a thing so clearly among 
impossibilities, as he then thought, that the idea 
of such a happiness never occurred to him. He 
thought he must make the most of his advantages, 
and procure a good common school education. It 
was during this year that the following incident 
occurred, . which we give in Mr. Webster's own 
words. It is extracted from a letter written by 
Mr. Webster, while spending a summer vacation 
among the scenes of his youth. 

" Looking out at the east windows at this mo- 
ment, with a beautiful sun just breaking out, my 
eye sweeps over a rich and level field of one hun- 
dred acres. * * I could see a lamb on any part of 
it. I have ploughed it, and raked it, and hoed it; 
but I never mowxd it. Somehow I never could 
learn to hang a scythe. I had not wit enough. 
My brother Joe used to say that my father sent 
me to college, in order to make me equal to the 
rest of the children ! J 

" Of a hot day in July — it must have been in 
one of the last years of Washington's administra- 



48 LIFE OF 

tion — I was making hay with my father, just 
where I now see a remaining elm tree. About the 
middle of the afternoon, Hon. Abiel Foster, M. C, 
who lived in Canterbury, six miles off, called at 
the house, and came into the field to see my father. 
He was a worthy man, college-learned, and had 
been a minister, but was not a man of any consi- 
derable natural power. My father was his friend 
and supporter. He talked a while in the field, 
and then went away. When he was gone, my 
father called me to him, and we sat down beneath 
the elm, on a hay-cock. He said, ' My son, that 
is a worthy man. He is a member of Congress. 
He goes to Philadelphia, and gets six dollars a 
day, while I toil here. It is because he had an 
education, which I never had. If I had received 
an equally good education, I should have been in 
Philadelphia in his place. I came near it, as it 
was. But I missed it, and now I must continue 
to work here.' 

" ' My dear father,' said I, ^you shall not work. 
Brother and I will work for you, and wear our 
hands out, and you shall rest.' 

" And I remember to have cried ; and I cry now 
at the recollection. 

" ' My child,' said he, ' it is of no importance to 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 49 

me ; I now live but for my children. I could not 
give your elder brother the advantages of know- 
ledge, but I can do something for you. Exert 
yourself; improve your opportunities; learn, learn; 
andj when I am gone, you will not need to go 
through the hardships which I have undergone, 
and which have made me an old man before my 
time." 

Master Tappan, as ^ve have seen, had spoken 
to Colonel Webster of the capacity of his sons. 
Mr. Thompson seconded the schoolmaster's advice, 
that Daniel should be educated ; for, the remark- 
able tenacity of Daniel's memory, and the ease 
wath which he had committed the grammar, had 
much surprised and pleased the lawyer. Daniel's 
mother urged that he should have an opportunity 
for the development of his powders. Brother Joe, 
wdio, with his waggery, had a right good heart, 
added his voice, putting the case in the humorous 
light to which reference has already been made. 
And the slight form of Daniel was also urged, as 
making it necessary that he should be enabled to 
pursue some less laborious occupation than that 
of a New Hampshire farmer. It was, therefore, 
determined that Daniel should be qualified to teach 
a country school, that his winter months might be 

6 



50 LIFE OF 

profitably passed, without tlie exposure of wood- 
cutting and other winter avocations in New Eng- 
land. In the summer he could still assist upon 
the farm. There were many such instances within 
their knowledge, and the young teachers had done 
well. With these views, it was determined to 
send Daniel Webster to Phillips' Academy in 
Exeter. 

This Academy, one of the best in the United 
States, had then been founded about fourteen 
years, and was under the charge of the same 
principal, Dr. Benjamin Abbott, who lived, and 
remained at Exeter, until after his Salisbury pupil 
and many others had attained high positions in 
life. On a bright morning in May, 1796, Daniel 
Webster, with his father, set out for Exeter. 
Daniel rode on a side-saddle, which was sent to 
Exeter for a lady to return upon to Salisbury; 
for, in those days, carriages were few and roads 
bad. Dressed in his home-made suit, and thus 
curiously mounted, Daniel rode forth to seek his 
fortune ; not in any knight-errant or erratic mood, 
but with the fixed purpose of making the best use 
of the advantages which the partiality of his 
father had opened to him. The journey required 
the greater part of three days — two nights being 



DANIEL WEBSTER . 51 

spent upon the road. On the fourth day, the 
fiither took his son to apply for admission into the 
Academy. Fifty years ago there was much more 
dignity preserved among official personages than 
at present; and young Daniel, w^ith a beating 
heart, but still self-possessed, presented himself 
for examination. Dr. Abbott handed him the 
Bible, and requested him to read the twenty- 
second chapter of the Gospel according to St. 
Luke. 

Probably no task could have been given in 
which the lad of fourteen could have acquitted 
himself to better advantage. He was familiar 
with the book, and accustomed to read aloud. 
With an accent and emphasis which evinced his 
knowledge of what he read, and his ability to 
convey the meaning to his hearers, Daniel read of 
the treachery of Judas, the Last Supper, the 
agony in Gethsemane, the betrayal of the Saviour^ 
the weakness of Peter, the Mock Trial before the 
Council, and the other incidental themes of the 
chapter. Daniel was in a strange place, and 
before a different auditory from the travellers who 
had so often listened to him. He had not the 
assurance of the love and admiration of his 
hearers, as when he went over the hke passages 



52 LIFE OF 



at his father s fireside. But he conceutrated his 
mind on the subject-matter, and forgot all else in 
its solemn meaning. Dr. Abbott listened with 
admiration, and suffered him to proceed to the 
end of the long chapter. He had never heard it 
read better ; and when Daniel closed and returned 
him the book, he simply said, without asking 
another question, '• Young man, you are qualified 
to enter this institution." 

Daniel remained only nine months at Exeter. 
His first entrance was a sore trial ; for, notwith- 
standing his innate consciousness of power, his 
mifashionable wardrobe, his unpolished manners 
and general rustic appearance, exposed him to the 
derision of lads, who would now be for^'otten but 
for their accidental meeting as classmates with 
Daniel Webster. A few days after entering the 
mstitution he returned to his lodaines in oTcat 
despondency, and told his friends that the city 
boys in the Academy were contmually laughing 
at him, because he was at the foot of the class, 
and came from the back-woods. This petty social 
tyranny, so common among boys, completely de- 
pressed the future orator. In referring to his 
school-davs, Mr. Webster tells us : •• I l^elieve I 
made tolerable progress in most branches which I 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 53 

attended to while in this school, but there was one 
thino: I could not do — I could not make a decla^ 
mation ; I could not speak before the school. The 
kind and excellent Buckminster sought especially 
to persuade me to perform the exercise of decla- 
mation, like other boys, but, notwithstanding, I 
could not do it. Many a piece did I commit to 
memory, and recite and rehearse in my own room, 
over and over again; yet, when the day came, 
and the school collected to hear the declamations, 
when my name was called, and I saw all eyes 
turned to my seat, I could not raise myself from 
it. Sometimes the instructors frowned; some- 
times they smiled. Mr. Buckminster always 
pressed and entreated, most winningly, that I 
would venture, venture only once. But I never 
could command sufficient resolution." It is stated 
that Daniel was effectually discouraged when first 
called upon. He became embarrassed, burst into 
tears, and sat down. 

Joseph Stevens Buckminster was one of the 
tutors in the Academy ; Nicholas Emery was an- 
other. Both these gentlemen, as well as Dr. 
Abbott, discerned the rustic boy's talent ; and the 
progress which he had made in his Latin recrea- 
tions, in Mr. Thompson's office^, stood him in good 

5* 



54 LIFE OF 

stead. Mr. Emery, who was made acquainted 
with Daniel's difficulties and troubles with the 
boys, treated him with marked kindness, by way 
of encouragement. He urged him to pay no heed 
to their taunts, but give his v/hole thoughts to his 
books, and all would come out right. At the end 
of the first quarter, Mr. Emery mustered his class 
in a line, and formally took the arm of young 
Webster, and conducted him to the head of the 
class, saying at the same time that this was his 
proper position. Cheered by this triumph, Daniel 
applied himself with new diligence. After the 
review at the end of the second quarter, when the 
class was again mustered for the summing up, Mr. 
Emery said, 

" Daniel Webster, gather up your books, and 
take down your cap." 

Strangely puzzled to know what this could 
mean, and fearing that he was to be expelled, the 
lad silently obeyed. 

" Now, sir, you wdll please report yourself to 
the teacher of the first class; and you, young 
gentlemen, will take an affectionate leave of your 
classmate, for you will never see him again." 

Such was the mode in which he had distanced 
those who had affected to despise him, and pre- 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 55 

sumecl upon their better dress and fuller pockets, 
to tease the backwoods boy. 

It will be readily supposed that such progress, 
and in so short a period, could only have been 
accomplished by diligent study. The qualification 
of young Webster for a schoolmaster was still the 
leading object of his studies ; and Latin w^as pur- 
sued as a secondary branch. The English branches, 
such as would be needed for the instruction of a 
country school, received his chief attention. Col. 
Webster's limited means made it necessary that 
this object should be pursued with the strictest 
economy ; his whole estate being worth less than 
three thousand dollars. To prosecute his studies 
at a less expense, Daniel was removed from 
Exeter, and placed in the family of the Rev. Dr. 
Samuel Wood, of Boscawen, were board and 
tuition were given him for one dollar per w^eek. 

But, in the interim between leaving Exeter and 
going to Boscawxn, young Daniel, now in his six- 
teenth year, had an opportunity to show how far 
his education to that date could be made available. 
While he continued his own studies at home, a 
class was collected for him to teach, few, if any, 
being younger than he, and some of them his 
seniors. He was found fully competent, and the 



56 LIFE OF 

proceeds of this school no doubt were applied to 
the relief of his father in bearing the expenses of 
his education. Many a distinguished man in New 
England has "worked his way" in the same mode; 
and it has proved a most excellent preparation for 
after life ; teaching them practically the cost and 
the value of their education. 

The impression which Daniel made upon Dr. 
Abbott, at Exeter, was not Lost, although he was 
removed from that institution. Dr. Abbott was 
an intimate friend of Dr. Wood, and they had an 
interchange of opinions upon the rare talents 
which the lad had exhibited. Dr. Wood was one 
of the trustees of Dartmouth College, and it was 
upon his earnest recommendation that Daniel 
should be fitted for that institution, that his father 
consented. Dr. Wood proposed to attend to the 
preparatory studies of the lad ; and it was this 
which determined the farther progress of Daniel. 
Up to this time the original purpose only had been 
entertained — to educate a county schoolmaster. 
Dr. Wood had experience and discrimination. He 
resided in Boscawen, beloved and respected, over 
half a century ; and, during that period, person- 
ally instructed one hundred and fifty-five pupils in 
his own house. Of these, one hundred and five 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 57 

entered college. About one-third of Dr. Wood's 
pupils became clergymen, twenty took up the pro- 
fession of the law, and a few graduated as physi- 
cians. Among his pupils, Dr. Wood had the 
honest pride to see many of the leading men of 
New Hampshire, and some who have achieved a 
..national reputation. 

While on his way to Boscawen with his father, 
to take his place in the household of Dr. Wood, 
Daniel was first apprised of the conclusion which 
his father and his teachers had reached concernimi: 
him. The old-fashioned mode of treating chil- 
dren, — and we are inclined to think that the 
modern is far from being in all respects an im- 
provement, — kept the will and purposes of the 
boy in abeyance to the authority of the parents. 
So, while Drs. Wood and Abbott had consulted 
and advised, and Colonel Webster had consented, 
Daniel's mind was undisturbed by any speculation 
upon the future. 

The advantages of a college education were 
above the highest dreams of the lad. Plis emo- 
tions, when the intention of his father were com- 
I municated to him, exceeded his power of expres- 
sion. While he eagerly assented, and felt, to use 
his own words, '^ as much exultation one moment 



58 LIFE OF 

as ever was felt bv a Roman Consul, to whom a 
triumph had been decreed," in the next he was 
unmanned by his feelings. " I remember," he 
once said, " the very hill which we were ascending, 
through deep snows, in a New England sleigh, 
when my father made known this promise to me. 
I could not speak. How could he, I thought, with 
so large a family, and in such narrow circum- 
stances, think of incurring so great an expense 
for me ? A warm glow ran all over me, and I 
laid my head on my father's shoulder and wept." 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 59 



CHAPTER III. 



Virgil and Cicero — Don Quixote — Grotius and Puffendorf — A 
long Recitation — Daniel a poor Harvester — A new Impetus to 
his Studies — Advantages of Education in the Olden Time — 
The Journey to Hanover — The true blue Suit — Storm and Delay 
— Arrival at Hanover — Making Toilet in Fast Colors — Manly 
Appearance, in Spite of Disadvantages — Daniel enters as Fresh- 
man — His Habits while at Dartmouth — His Manner of Compo- 
sition — Fondness for Out-door Exercise — Apostrophes to the Cod 
and the Trout — Mr. "Webster and the Farmer — Mr. AYebster and 
the Quails — His First Trout. 



Daniel Webster did not commence his prepa- 
ration for College like a lad who could go through 
it as a routine duty, occupying the time of an 
established course, and pursuing it at his leisure. 
It was all important that he should reduce the 
expense of his education, by shortening the time 
employed in acquiring it. He entered Dr. Wood's 
family at the beginning of March, 1797; and, in 
August of the same year entered Dartmouth Col- 
lege. The good use of his limited opportunities, 
which he had already made, prepared him for this 



60 LIFE OF 

very brief course. And yet, though Daniel 
Webster had the strongest inducements to exer- 
tion, and possessed wonderful natural powers, we 
are not to suppose that the preparation made in 
so very short a period was anything like thorough. 
Daniel had already some acquaintance with the 
rudiments of the Latin language, and he had, 
moreover, a fondness for it. He had neither time 
nor money to expend on things not absolutely ne- 
cessary, and his preparation in Greek was barely 
sufficient to fulfil the requirements of the college, 
upon admission. He gave only two months to 
this language ; and this imperfect preparation he 
always regretted. In college it was always a task 
rather than an intellectual pleasure ; and, as lately 
as the year before his death, he expressed his re- 
gret that he had not pursued the Greek language, 
till he could read and understand Demosthenes in 
his own tongue. What Daniel Webster was com- 
pelled to forego, by want of opportunity, should 
not be neglected by those who have time and 
means. The deficiency that he acknowledged, 
would be more apparent in a man of less natural 
capacity. 

The Latin language was his delight. He read 
the entire uEneid as a pleasant occupation, long 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 61 

before lie was called to recite it, in the course of 
instruction. When he entered the class of young 
men who were preparing for college with Dr. 
Wood, he found them reviewing Cicero's orations. 
Daniel had never read them 3 but he commenced, 
and kept pace with his classmates ; and he has 
been heard to say that no task was so easily ac- 
complished by him as the reading of Cicero. Pro- 
bably the "Social Library" had rendered him 
familiar with the history and themes of the Latin 
orator; and he could enter with understanding 
mto his thoughts, and appreciate his argument. 
At Boscawen he found another " Social Library ; " 
and in this he sought relaxation from his severer 
studies. It was his rule to work with all his heart 
and mind while at work, and when he sought 
relief to abandon himself to it. At Boscawen he 
met, for the first time, an English translation of 
Don Quixote. He bears the same testimony to 
the interest of this work, that other men of mind 
have done. " I began to read it," he says, " and 
it is literally true that I never closed my eyes 
until I had finished it ; nor did I lay it down any 
time for ^ye minutes ; so great was the power of 
this extraordinary book upon my imagination." 
But his imagination was not alone consulted in 

G 



62 LIFE OF 

his leisure ; for, besides Virgil and Cicero, wliich 
he read with his tutor, and other classics which 
he looked over under the same direction, he read, 
in the original, two large works of Grotius and 
Puffendorf 

With Daniel Webster's residence at Dr. Wood's 
an anecdote is connected, which implies a good 
reproof of those who would neglect study for 
amusement, and cite his example as their apology. 
Mr. Webster had a very retentive memory, and 
could, in a few moments, commit what it cost 
others hours of labor to accomplish. This faculty 
in memorising made him appear negligent, to the 
superficial observer, who measured study by the 
time occupied, rather than by the results obtained. 
His favorite recreations were walks with his gun 
and his rod. His preceptor once hinted to him, 
that the spending of so much time in rambling 
might have an injurious influence upon the habits 
of the other boys. He did not complain that his 
task was neglected, nor that he was unprepared 
for his recitations. 

The sensitive lad could not endure any suspi- 
cion that he neglected his duties. He applied 
himself instantly to Virgil, and spent the entire 
night at his self-imposed task. The next morning 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 63 

he read liis hundred hues without tripping or 
mistake. Dr. Wood expressed his approbation, 
and prepared to leave, as he had an engagement, 
of which, by the way, Daniel was aware. '^ I can 
recite a few more lines," said the lad. " Well, let 
us have them," said the Doctor ; and a hundred 
more were read. Breakfast was repeatedly an- 
nounced, and the Doctor, impatient to go, asked 
how much farther he could read. " To the end 
of the Twelfth Book," was the reply. The Doctor 
complimented him upon his recitation, but begged 
to be excused from so long a session. " You may 
have the whole day, Dan, for pigeon-shooting," 
said his tutor, when retiring. But the conscien- 
tious lad never gave the Doctor an opportunity to 
reprove him again, and avoided even the appear- 
ance of neglect, by strictly keeping his study 
hours. 

I While Daniel was studying with Dr. Wood, his 
father sent for him to come home, and assist for a 
few days in harvesting. He packed up his bundle 
-of clothes and answered the summons. On the 
next morning he went to work in the fields, while 
the father visited a neighboring town upon busi- 
ness. His slender limbs proved unequal to the 
labor, in which he probably over-exerted himself, 



64 LIFE OF 

and lie returned to the house before noon with 
bhstered hands. His mother readily excused him 
from farther labor. An hour after dinner, how- 
ever, found Daniel so much refreshed, that he put 
the old family horse in harness, and, placing his 
sisters in a wagon, drove to a famous hill, w^here 
he, boy-like, worked harder in running than he 
could have done in the hay-field. His father 
laughed upon hearing from Daniel and his mother 
the report of the day's work; and the next 
morning handed Daniel his bundle of clothes, and, 
with a smile, pointed towards Boscawen. The boy 
walked off, and, as he left the house, his old 
friend, Thompson, asked, "Where, now, Dan?" 
" Back to school, sir," said the boy. " I thought 
it w^ould be so," said the other, with a quiet laugh : 
and the boy walked back to his preceptor. Dr. 
Wood, who had probably regretted the harvest 
excursion as lost time, received him with a cordial 
greeting, and told him that, with hard study, he 
might enter Dartmouth College at the next com- 
mencement. At this time Daniel did not even 
know the Greek Alphabet ; but, wdth the encou- 
ra2:ement of his tutor, and characteristic energy, 
he applied himself to the work, and accomphshed 
it. /His father had told him that he should go to 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 65 

college, "if he was compellecl to sell every acre 
of land to pay the exjoense." / 

Daniel appreciated the sacrifice, and looked for- 
ward with high expectations to the privilege. 
Now, by the increase of opportunities, and the 
high improvement, in cities and large towns espe- 
cially, of public schools, education has become a 
far different matter. There is much less differ- 
ence, now, between the acquirements of the colle- 
gian and the information of those who have not 
the privilege of academic education, than there 
was in the days of Daniel's boyhood. From the 
common school to the college was a long remove. 
The college graduate was a man distinctly marked, 
because few lads commenced such higher branches 
as are now included in our public-school courses, 
except with a view to enter the learned professions. 
Edward Everett, in his Memoir of Webster, has 
the following remarks upon the subject : 

" In truth, a college education was a far chfFerent 
affair fifty years ago from what it has since 
become, by the multiplication of collegiate insti- 
tutions, and the establishment of public funds in 
aid of those who need assistance. It constituted 
a person at once a member of an intellectual aris- 
tocracy. In many cases it really conferred quali- 

6* 



66 LIFE OF 

fications, and in all was supposed to do so, without 
which professional and public life could not be 
entered upon with any hope of success. In New 
England, at that time, it was not a common occur- 
rence that any one attained a respectable position 
in either of the professions, without this advantage. 
In selecting the members of the family who should 
enjoy the privilege, the choice not unfrequently 
fell upon the son whose slender frame and early 
indications of disease, unfitted him for the la- 
borious life of our New England yeomanry. 

While Daniel Webster was preparing to enter 
college, his friend. Dr. Wood, who was a Trustee 
of Dartmouth, was preparing the Faculty to re- 
ceive him. The Doctor went to them personally 
to recommend Daniel, " not so much for what he 
had learned, as for what" he told them, " he could 
learn, if he had an opportunity." Mr. Thompson 
was also a member of the Board of Trustees, and 
their joint influence, with that of Dr. Abbott, and 
the respect in which Mr. Webster's father was 
held, procured the application of the young man 
a respectful consideration, and predis|)osed his 
examiners to be lenient. 

It is noticeable how much the self-reliance of 
Daniel Webster had been increased by success, 



DANIEL WEBSTER. , 67 

and by the knowledge of what he could effect if 
he bent his energies to the w^ork. He saw the 
young gentlemen at Dr. Wood's, who were to enter 
with him at college, fully prepared, and leisurely 
reviewing the books which he was first reading, 
with all the disadvantages of haste and want of 
time. Nevertheless, he persevered in his original 
intention. 

The incidents of his journey to Dartmouth are 
among the most interesting passages of his boy 
life; and we dwell upon such, because it is for 
youth we are writing. The details of the events 
of the manhood of such men as Webster cannot 
be compressed within our space. And, in the 
larger and more elaborate works, which are de- 
voted to the public life and ser^dces of statesmen, 
the particulars which we seek to preserve are 
passed over. 

Daniel Webster's first Dartmouth suit was true 
blue, domestic manufacture, coat, vest, and panta- 
loons. The Avriter of this memoir remembers that 
homespun manufacture well — literally redolent of 
the substances y/hich gave it its hue, — stealing 
and giving color as well as odors, for, where the 
perspiration oozed from the skin, the colors struclv 
in. Those, as we have already remarked, were 



G8 LIFE OF 

not the days of public conveyances. Daniel set 
out from home on horseback, his books and ward- 
robe packed in saddle-bags. Hardly had he left 
the house when a furious storm burst upon the 
traveller. It continued two days, and swelled the 
mountain streams, which he had to pass, to tor- 
rents, washing roads, and carrying away bridges. 
The delays which this inopportune tempest caused^ 
protracted his journey, and, on his arrival, he had 
no time to lose. The Faculty was in session for 
the examination of candidates, and his presence 
was required immediately. 

Professor Shurtleff, now one of the Faculty of 
Amherst College, entered the institution at the 
same time, as a student. He says : '' I put up, 
with others, at what is now called the Olcott 
House, which was then a tavern. We were con- 
ducted to a chamber where we might brush our 
clothes, and make ready for examination. A 
young man, a stranger to us all, Avas soon ushered 
into the room. Similarity of object rendered the 
ordinary forms of mtroduction needless. We 
learned that his name was Webster ; also where 
he had studied, and how much Latin and Greek 
he had read, which, I think, was just to the limit 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 69 

prescribed by the law. at that period, and Avhich 
was very much below the present requisition. 

Daniel found, on attempting his toilet, that the 
fast colors of his new suit were fast in discharging 
from their proper place, and no less fast in adhering 
where they were not desired. He was blue 
throughout — linen and skin, and all. He improved 
his plight as well as he could, but after all his 
efforts, he says of himself, that he was not only 
"hlaclv Dan, but hlue Dan." He stated what o^d- 
portunities he had had, what time he had spent 
in preparation, and what books he had read, and 
recounted his wayside disaster. " Thus, you see 
me," he said, " as I am ; if not entitled to your 
approbation, at least to your sympathy." The 
diffident boy among boys, could hold up his head 
before men. He answered the questions addressed 
to him without embarrassment, and with full pos- 
session and command of his resources. Like many 
other lads of nervous sensibility, he found what 
he had feared as a fiery ordeal, a much less severe 
trial than he expected, and was entered as a 
Freshman at Dartmouth Colleore. 

Hon. John Wheelock, LL. D., was President 
of Dartmouth College at the time of Mr. AYebster's 
entrance. Hon. Bezalecl Woodward, and Rev. 



70 LIFE OF 

John Smith, D. D., were among the Professors. 
These gentlemen, and particularly the latter, were 
so much impressed with his character and talents, 
that his Dartmouth experience proved a good re- 
commendation to his further progress, as we shall 
presently see. Professor ShurtlefF, whom we have 
already quoted, thus bears testimony to Mr. Web- 
ster's habits while at Dartmouth : 

^' Mr. Webster, while in college, was remarkable 
for his steady habits, his intense application to 
study, and his punctual attendance upon all the 
prescribed exercises. I know not that he was ab- 
sent from a recitation, or from morning and evening 
prayers in the chapel, or from public worship on 
the Sabbath ; and I doubt if ever a smile was seen 
upon his face during any religious exercise. He 
was always in his place, and with a decorum 
suited to it. He had no collision with any one, 
nor appeared to enter into the concerns of others, 
but emphatically minded Ids oion husiness. But, 
as steady as the sun, he pursued with intense ap- 
plication the great object for which he came to 
college. This, I conceive, was the secret of his 
popularity in college, and his success in subsequent 
life." 

Another authority, the writer of a paper in 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 71 

Putnam's Monthly, speaks as follows respecting 
Mr. Webster's career in college : " It lias been so 
commonly reported about our colleges that Web- 
ster was not a laborious student, that many gen- 
tlemen who have written eulogies upon the illus- 
trious statesman and orator, have felt bound to 
apologize for him as a scholar. This is all wrong. 
His early life was as strongly characterized by 
those homely virtues, industry, perseverance, and 
punctuality, as his later career. It may safely be 
questioned whether any undergraduate of any of 
our New England Colleges ever left behind him 
so many written and printed proofs of his talents 
and application, as Mr. Webster. He always 
scorned the imputation of idleness. When in- 
formed that such a tradition prevailed among stu- 
dents, he exclaimed, ' What fools they must be, to 
suppose that a man could make anything of him- 
self without hard study !' He regarded everj^ hour 
of his student life as sacred to study and reflection ; 
that his first object was a thorough mastery of his 
daily tasks, and his next purpose was, to store his 
mind with useful knowledge. His solitary wan- 
derings were devoted to reflection, and frequently 
to the composition of his themes j his social inter- 



72 LIFE OF 

course was always rendered profitable by literary 
conversation." 

The classmates of Mr. Webster, quoted by the 
last-mentioned writer, thus speak of his college 
life : " His habits were good. He had the highest 
sense of honor and integrity. He was sure to 
understand the subject of his recitation; some- 
times, I used to think, in a more extended and 
comprehensive sense than his teacher. He never 
liked to be confined to small technicalities or 
narrow views, but seemed to possess an intuitive 
knowledge of whatever subject he was considering. 
He did not find it necessary, as was the case with 
most of us, to sit down to hard work three or four 
hours, to make himself master of his lesson, but 
seemed to comprehend it in a larger view, and 
would, sometimes, procure other books on the 
same subject, for further examination, and employ 
hours in close thought, either in his room or in his 
walks, which would enlarge his views, and, at the 
same time, might, with some, give him the cha- 
racter of not being a close student. 

" His great powers of memory he turned to good 

account, both in retaining the thoughts of others, 

and in fixing the results of his own reflections. 

^He was accustomed to arrange his thoughts for 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 73 

debates and declamations in his solitary rambles 
upon the borders of neighboring brooks^ angling 
for trout, or scouring the surrounding forests in 
quest of game. When his thoughts were once 
arranged in his mind, the business of writing was 
merely mechanical. Amusement and study were 
so strangely wedded, that careless observers mis- 
took the profound thinker for a heedless trifier. 
He composed his college themes at his leisure, and 
ivroie them just before they were due. Accord- 
ingly, he was often known to commence the 
writing of a public declamation after dinner, 
which he w\as to speak at two o'clock the same 
day. The New Hampshire hour for dinner, fifty 
years ago, as it still is in many rural districts, was 
meridian. In one instance, while writing, a sudden 
flaw of wind took away his paper through the 
open window, and it was last seen flying over the 
meeting-house. He appeared upon the stage, not- 
withstanding his loss, and spoke with his usual 
fluency and eloquence. 

General Lyman records a conversation with a 
lady who resided in Hanover when Mr. Webster 
was at Dartmouth. She was somewhat younger 
than he, and, among the memories of her girlhood, 
are recollections of Daniel Webster, of whom her 

7 



74 LIFE OF 

brother was a classmate. She says that Mr. 
Webster was of slight form, and had the appear- 
ance of a person of feeble constitution. He was 
a brunette in complexion ; his hair was black as 
jet, and, when turned back, displayed a forehead 
which always excited great admiration. His dark 
eyes shone with extraordinary brilliancy. In his 
youth, among other soubriquets, Mr. Webster had 
that of " All Eyes." With this delicacy of consti- 
tution, we may readily suppose that the out-door 
recreations, invigorating yet not violent, in wdiich 
Mr. Webster indulged, were as necessary to the 
health of his body as to the strength of his mind. 
Probably, to them, and to his habit of early rising, 
and devoting the morning to study, Mr. Webster 
owed that renovation of his physical strength, 
which made him in after years as remarkable for 
his iron constitution, as in youth he had been for 
an opposite appearance. He was quite an adroit 
swimmer and skater, and a very good marksman. 
In the pursuit of anything he was an enthusiast. 
The brooks on his father's farm were, in those 
early days, famous for trout, and young Daniel 
knew all their haunts and habits. With his 
fishing-rods, cut from the bushes, and his horse- 
hair lines, of his own manufacture, he was ready, 



I 




WEBSTER FISHING AT FRYBURG. 



D A N I E L W E B S T E R . 75 

at every proper moment of leisure, while at home, 
in college, and even to the last days of his life, to 
follow the streams, and take the fish which can 
only be captured by skill and patience. 

By the side of the brook many of his college 
themes were composed. In the solitude of the 
forest, or the trout run, he arranged his legal argu- 
ments. On the day preceding that on which he 
was to deliver the address of w^elcome to General 
Lafliyette, in Boston, in 1825, Mr. Webster was 
out rod-fishing in his yacht. The sport was not 
good, and the party were about giving it up in 
despair, when Mr. Webster hooked a large cod, 
and, just as its nose appeared above water, he ex- 
claimed, in a loud and pompous voice, " Welcome ! 
all hail ! and thrice w^elcome, citizen of two hemi- 
spheres ! " We may imagine the amazement of 
the party when, on the next day, they heard these 
words addressed to the nation's guest. Such inci- 
dents exhibit what his thoughts were occupied 
with, even during his apparent abandonment to 
amusement. 

Another anecdote, of a similar nature, is related 
respecting Mr. Webster's composition of his fimous 
address, delivered on Bunker Hill. It w^as arrans^ed 
in his mind, and studied by the side of Marshpee 



76 LIFE OF 

Brook, fishing-rod in hand. As he landed in 
quick succession a couple of huge trout, and trans- 
ferred them to his basket, he thus apostrophized 
them, " Venerable men ! you have come down to 
us from a former generation. Heaven has boun- 
teously lengthened out your lives, that you miglit 
behold this joyous day." Stern and thoughtful 
as Mr. Webster appeared in public, he had a high 
zest for humor; and, that the above sentence, 
which occurs in his speech, should have been first 
addressed to the fishes, while his mind was occu- 
pied with it, is perfectly in character with his 
playfulness in private life. He very much en- 
joyed a harmless joke, even when he was the 
subject of it, and used to relate the following with 
great glee : 

He went from Marshfield, some years since, on 
a trouting expedition to Sandwich. Coming to a 
fine stream, he stepped from his wagon, and 
meeting the owner of the farm, the usual saluta- 
tions passed. Mr. Webster inquired if there were 
any trout in the stream. 

" Well," said the farmer, " some people fish here, 
but I don't know what they do get." 

" I '11 throw my line in," said Mr. Webster, ^^and 
see what there is." 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 77 

Mr. Webster walked the banks of the stream, 
trymg his kick, and the old farmer followed him. 
Mr. Webster soon remarked, 

" You have some bog on your farm." 

" Yes," rejoined the farmer, " and that ain't the 
worst of it." 

Mr. Webster still continued to throw his line 
into the deep pools. After a silence of a few 
moments, he said, 

" You have plenty of briars here." 

" Yes," said the farmer, " and that ain't the worst 
of it." 

Mr. Webster began to get somewhat discouraged. 
To be sweltering in the heat of an August day, 
bitten by mosquitoes, scratched by briars, and yet 
not be able to raise a single fish, was too much for 
his patience — dropping his rod, he remarked, 

" I do not believe there are any trout here." 

"And that ain't the worst of it," reiterated the 
farmer. 

" Well," said Mr. Webster, " I would like to 
Iviiow icliat the worst of it is?" 

" There never was any liere^'' replied the waggish 
farmer. 

While Mr. Webster, in 1851, was engrossed 
with the affairs of the nation, as Secretary of 



78 LIFE OF 

State, lie was almost in the daily habit of fishing 
at the little Falls of the Potomac. His only and 
constant attendant on these occasions was his 
Private Secretary, Mr. Lanman, whom he called 
for the purpose at the early hour of four, in the 
morning. He was pleased if he caught a few 
rock-fish or bass, and quite contented if he caught 
nothing ; for he enjoyed the fresh air and exer- 
cise, and returned from the fishing-ground before 
the public offices were opened. Air and exercise 
were his mental stimulus. He had no boyish 
fondness for taking the lives of animals, and never 
hesitated to reprove those who had this weakness. 
Mr. Lanman relates that, while he was walking 
with Mr. Webster one morning, at Marshfield, 
they were joined by a Boston gentleman. A fiock 
of quails ran across the road, and the stranger 
worked himself up into an intense excitement, 
and exclaimed, " Oh ! if I only had a gun, I could 
easily kill the whole flock ; have you not one in 
your house, Mr. Webster ?" Mr. Webster calmly 
replied that he had a number of guns, but that no 
man whatsoever was ever permitted to kill a 
quail or any other bird, a rabbit or a squirrel, on 
his property. He then proceeded to comment on 
the slaughtering propensities of the American 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 79 

people, remarking that, in this country, there was 
an almost universal passion for killing and eating 
every wild animal that chanced to cross the path- 
way of man ; while in England and other portions 
of Europe, these animals were kindly protected 
and valued for their companionship. " This, to 
me, is a great mystery," said he, " and, so far as 
my influence extends, the birds shall be protected." 
Just at this moment one of the quails mounted a 
little knoll and poured forth a few of its sweet 
and peculiar notes. Mr. Webster continued, 
" There, does not that gush of song do the heart 
a thousandfold more good than could possibly be 
derived from the death of that beautiful bird?" 
The stranger thanked Mr. Webster for his reproof, 
and said afterward that this little incident had 
taught him to love the man whom he had before 
only admired as a statesman. 

Having gone before the course of our narrative, 
to insert in this place anecdotes of the latter part 
of Mr. Webster's life, we may correct the error by 
going back to his early childhood, and showing 
who taught him to fish. While a bare-footed boy, 
in his fifth year, he was riding with his father 
upon the same horse. " Dan !" said the Colonel, 
" how would you like to catch a trout ?" Of course 



80 LIFE OF 

the lad could not but like such an achievement. 
They dismounted, and the father cut a hazel-twig, 
to which he affixed a hook and line, which he 
produced from his pocket. Turning over a flat 
stone, he found a worm for bait, and told his son 
to creep upon a rock, and carefully throw it to the 
further side of a deep pool. The boy did as he 
was bidden, hooked a fish, lost his balance, and 
fell into the water ; whence he was drawn ashore 
by his father, still clinging to his end of the line, 
while the fish was fast to the other. And that 
was the w^ay Daniel Webster's first trout was 
landed. 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 81 



CHAPTER lY. 



Studies of the first two Years at Dartmouth — Young Webster a 
Schoolmaster in the Vacations — His Fondness for a Scholar's 
Life — Ilis desire that his Brother Ezekiel should share his Pur- 
suits — Diflfieultics in the Way — The Young Men pass a Night 
in considering them — Importance of Ezekiel's aid to his Father 
— Daniel introduces the Subject to the Old Gentleman — The 
Mother called in to advise — Her prompt Decision — Ezekiel enters 
upon a Course of Preparation, and Daniel returns to College — - 
Change in his Costume — His xittention, through Life, to Personal 
Neatness — Third Year in College — Mr. Webster takes high 
Rank — Fourth of July' Oration in 1800 — Anecdote of General 
Stark. 



, During the first year at college, Mr. Webster's 
studies were the Greek and Latin languages, the 

I rules for speaking and composition, and the ele- 
ments of mathematics. In the second year new 

, books were taken in these languages, and logic and 
the higher branches of mathematics were added. 
Greek and mathematics were not studies in which 

I his mind was interested. Logic, rhetoric, and the 
belles-lettres, history, biography and poetry Avere 
his delight. In geography, ancient and modern, 



82 LIFE OF 

he was a proficient. In the Latin language he 
was, from the first, at home. The dictionary and 
grammar were impressed on his memory, and he 
read the Latin chxssics as a recreation, and not as 
a task. "' If," he says, " at this early stage I had 
a desire for the future, it w^as to write as Virgil 
and Tacitus wrote, and to speak as Cicero spoke." 
But, though a good scholar, he did not rank as the 
best during his first years in college. Nor was it 
to be wondered that he could not, under his disad- 
vantages, rank with those who had entered with 
everything in their favor. 

We have mentioned Mr. Webster's first attempt 
at school-teaching, in 1797. In 1798 he again 
taught in his college vacation. A new school- 
house had been erected in Salisbury, at " Shaw's 
Corner ; " and Mr. Webster received for his second 
attempt — having gained one year in age, and more 
in experience — six dollars a month. During his 
first term of teaching, his salary was only four 
dollars. Many of the district schools in New 
England are thus taught by students ; but, during 
the last fifty years, the salary has advanced from 
this low standard, which was the rule when the 
student preparing for college was required to pay 
only one dollar per week for board and tuition. 




DANIEL WE B S T E R . 83 

t the end of Daniel's second year he spent a 
vacation at home. AVith advancement in his 
college course, and additional attention bestowed 
upon English literature, Mr. Webster was more in 
his element. Having reached a breathing-place 
in his progress, he began to feel more sensibly the 
happiness he enjoyed. Professor Sanborn thus 
narrates one of the most honorable passages in 
Daniel Webster's life : " He had tasted the sweets 
of literature, and enjoyed the victories of intel- 
lectual effort. He loved the scholar's life. He 
felt keenly for the condition of his brother Ezekiel, 
who was destined to remain on the farm, and 
labor to lift the mortgage from the old homestead, 
and furnish the means for his brother's support. 
Ezekiel was a farmer, in spirit and in practice. 
He led his laborers in the field, as he afterwards 
led his class in Greek. Daniel knew and appre- 
ciated his superior intellectual endowments. He 
resolved that his brother should enjoy the same 
privileges as himself. 

" That night the two brothers retired to bed, 
but not to sleep. They discoursed of their pros- 
pects. Daniel utterly refused to enjoy the fruit 
of his brother's labor any longer. They were 
united in sympathy and affections, and they must 



84 LIFE OF 

be united in their pursuits. But how could they 
leave their beloved parents^ in age and solitude, 
with no protector ? They talked and wept, and 
wept and talked till dawn of day. They dared 
not broach the matter to their father. Finally 
Daniel resolved to l)e the orator upon the occasion. 
Judge Webster was then somewhat burdened with 
debts. He was advanced in age, and had set his 
heart upon having Ezekiel as his helper. The 
very thought of separation from both his sons was 
painful to him. When the proposition was made, 
he felt as did the Patriarch of old, when he ex- 
claimed, ^Joseph is not, and will ye take Benjamin 
away ? ' 

"A family council was called. The mother's 
opinion was asked. She was a noble-minded 
woman. She was not blind to the superior en- 
dowments of her sons. With all a mother's par- 
tiality, however, she did not over-estimate their 
powers. She decided the matter at once. Her 
reply was, ^ I have lived long in the world, and 
been happy in my children. If Daniel and 
Ezekiel will promise to take care of me in my old 
age, I will consent to the sale of all our property, 
at once, and they may enjoy the benefit of all that 
remams after our debts are paid.' This was a 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 85 

moment of intense interest to all the parties. 
Parents and children all mingled their tears to- 
gether, and sobbed aloud at the thought of sepa- 
ration. The father yielded to the entreaties of 
his sons and the advice of his wife. Daniel re- 
turned to college ; Ezekiel took his little bundle 
in his hand, and sought on foot the scene of his 
preparatory studies. He resided, like his brother 
Daniel, at Boscawen, with Dr. Wood, and in one 
year went through his preparatory studies, entering 
at Dartmouth in 1803. / 

Young Webster's dress and appearance upon 
entering college we have already described. The 
accomplishment of his wishes and hopes respecting 
his brother opened a new era in his feelings. He 
was more elastic in spirits. Deeming nothing a 
trifle which affected the estimation in which others 
held him, and thence reflected disagreeably upon 
himself, he introduced a change in his costume. 
He remembered the mortification to which he was 
exposed at Exeter, and, after the commencement 
of his junior year, dressed better than the average 
of his class — but not foppishly. Throughout his 
life Mr. Webster paid strict attention to the pro- 
prieties of costume. He considered it a duty to 
be so prepared in all particulars, that those with 

8 



86 LIFE OF 

whom he was to converse, or the audience which 
he was expected to address, should perceive that 
he entertained a proper respect for them. He 
paid strict attention to the lesser as well as more 
important requirements of etiquette, and was 
always dressed in a becoming manner. His favo- 
rite and almost uniform costume for the Senate, 
the Bar, or public meetings, was a blue coat with 
gilt buttons, a buff-colored vest, and black panta- 
loons. We mention these matters here, because 
the hint for his attention to them appears to have 
been taken by him from his early school expe- 
riences ', and because, while foppishness is ridicu- 
lous, and expensive clothing is not desirable or 
necessary, cleanliness of person, and a proper re- 
gard to the customs of society, are due to every 
man's regard for health, and his respect for his 
friends. 

In the third year of his college course, besides 
the lano'uap^es, Daniel read Natural and Moral 
Philosophy, and Rhetoric. " Watts on the Mind" 
and " Locke on the Conduct of the Understand- 
ing," which were not in the regular college course, 
he committed to memory. Besides regular atten- 
tion to his prescribed studies, he improved the 
opportunity of his enlarged access to books, to 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 87 

read whatever was useful or graceful in English 
literature. As a classical and belles-lettres scholar 
(Greek always excepted), as a writer, and as a 
debater, he ranked first in his class. One of his 
classmates thus speaks of him : " The truth is, 
that by his thorough investigation of every sub- 
ject and every study, whilst in college, he rose to 
the very pinnacle of fixme ; and, since he has left 
college, all that he has had to do was to sustain 
his elevated position ; and all his classmates have 
been compelled to look up high to see him, which 
I have always been proud to do." 

In the year 1800, Daniel being then eighteen 
years old, his friends and admirers, in college and 
out, united in a pressing invitation to him to de- 
liver to the citizens of Hanover an oration on the 
Fourth of July. So much were the people pleased 
w^ith it, that they requested a copy for publication, 
and it was printed. The edition of Daniel Web- 
ster's works, published under his eye, does not 
contain it. Undoubtedly he regarded it as too 
crude and boyish to be included among his more 
mature writings. Perhaps — and very probably — 
he had not reserved a copy, and had nearly for- 
gotten it. It was not among the subjects of which 
he most delighted to converse. Delivered over 



88 LIFE OF 

half a century ago, while the wounds of the Ee- 
volution were yet fresh, it has a haughty bitterness 
towards Britain which we do not find in Mr. 
Webster's later speeches. Daniel's father was an 
earnest FederaUst — so much so, that it is related 
of him, that being taken sick on a journey while 
passing through a village noted for its opposite 
political character, he begged his physician to 
remove him as soon as possible out of the place. 
" He was born," he said, " a Federahst, had lived 
a Federalist, and could not die in any but a Fede- 
rahst town !" Young Daniel's allusion to France, 
and his commendation of the course of the then 
Executive of the United States, the elder Adams, 
show that the young man shared in the political 
feelings of his father. "Whatever reasons may 
have operated with the editors of Mr. Webster's 
speeches, to reject this interesting memorial of his 
youth, its insertion comes strictly within our place. 
It was the first strictly public performance of the 
young man; and, making all proper allowances 
for the circumstances which we have noted, it is 
not at all unworthy of his fame. It was but re- 
cently rescued from oblivion by General Lyman ; 
and we present it entire, that our young readers 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 89 

may compare it with the great orator's later 
speeches, and draw their own conclusions. 

The oration was preceded by the usual forms, 
the ringing of bells, iiring of cannon, and marching 
in procession. Prayer, an anthem, and the reading 
of the Declaration of Independence, opened the 
exercises. Those celebrations of the Fourth in 
country towns w^ere great affairs, even thirty years 
ago. As the nation grows older, if it loses some 
of the extravagance and boasting spirit of its 
youth, we fear that it loses also something of the 
sentiment of patriotism, and fervency of natural 
love and veneration for its great men. Daniel, of 
course, did himself justice in the delivery; and 
we may well imagine that his performance pro- 
duced a great sensation. The pamphlet copy of 
it bears on the title-page the following motto, from 
Addison : 

^'Do thou, great Liberty, inspire our souls, 
And make our lives, in thy possession, happy, 
Or our deaths glorious in thy just defence.'' 



" Countrymen, Brethren, and Fathers : 

" We are now assembled to celebrate an anni- 
versary, ever to be held in dear remembrance by 



90 LIFE OF 

the sons of Freedom. Nothing less than the birth 
of a nation — nothing less than the emancipation 
of three millions of people from the degrading 
chains of foreign dominion, is the event we com- 
memorate. 

"Twenty-four years have now elapsed since 
these United States first raised the standard of 
Liberty, and echoed the shouts of Independence. 

" Those of you who were then reaping the iron 
harvest of the martial field, whose bosoms then 
palpitated for the honor of America, will, at this 
time, experience a renewal of all that fervent 
patriotism ; of all those inscrutable emotions which 
then agitated your breasts. As for us, who were 
either then unborn, or not far enough advanced 
beyond the threshold of existence, to engage in 
the grand conflict for Liberty, we now most cor- 
dially unite with you, to greet the return of this 
joyous anniversary, to welcome the return of the 
day which gave us Freedom, and to hail the rising 
glories of our country ! 

" On occasions like this, you have hitherto been 
addressed from the stage, on the nature, the origin, 
and the expediency of civil government. The 
field of political speculation has been explored, by 
persons possessing talents to which the speaker of 



D A N I E L W E B S T E R . 91 

the day can have no pretensions. Declming 
therefore a dissertation on the principles of civil 
polity, you will indulge me in slightly sketching 
those events which have originated, nurtured, and 
raised to its present grandeur, this new republic. 

"As no nation on the globe can rival us in the 
rapidity of our growth since the conclusion of the 
Revolutionary War, so none, perhaps, ever en- 
dured greater hardships and distresses than the 
people of this country previous to that period. 
We behold a feeble band of colonists, engaged in 
the arduous undertaking of a new settlement in 
the wilds of North America. Their civil liberty 
being mutilated, and the enjoyment of their reli- 
gious sentiments denied them in the land that 
gave them birth, they fled their country, they 
braved the dangers of the then almost unnavi- 
gated ocean, and sought, on the other side of the 
globe, an asylum from the iron grasp of tyranny, 
and the more intolerable scourge of ecclesiastical 
persecution. 

"But gloomy indeed was the prospect when 
they arrived on this side of the Atlantic. Scat- 
tered in detachments along a coast immensely 
extensive, at a distance of more than three thou- 
sand miles from their friends on the Eastern Con- 



92 LIFE OF 

tinent, they were exposed to all those evils, and 
encountered or experienced all those difficulties to 
which human nature seemed liable. Destitute of 
convenient habitations, the inclemencies of the 
seasons harassed them, the midni^iit beasts of 
prey provvded terribly around them, and the more 
portentous yell of savage fury incessantly assailed 
them. But the same undiminished confidence in 
the Almighty God wdiich prompted the first settlers 
of this country to forsake the unfriendly climes 
of Europe, still supported them under all their 
calamities, and inspired them with fortitude almost 
divine. Having a glorious issue of their labors 
now in prospect, they cheerfully endured the rigors 
of the climate, pursued the savage beast in his 
remotest haunt, and stood, undismayed, in the 
dismal hour of Indian battle. 

" Scarcely were the Indian settlements freed 
from those dangers which at first environed them, 
ere the clashing interests of France and Britain 
involved them anew in war. The Colonists were 
now destined to combat with well-appointed, well- 
disciplined troops from Europe ; and the horrors 
of the tomahawk and the scal2:)ing-knife were 
again renewed. But these frowns of fortune, dis- 
tressing as they were, had been met without a 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 93 

sigh, and endured without a groan, had not Great 
Britain presumptuously arrogated to herself the 
glory of the victories achieved by American 
militia. Louisburg must be taken, Canada at- 
tacked, and a frontier of more than one thousand 
miles defended by untutored yeomanry, while the 
honor of every conquest must be ascribed to an 
English army. 

"But while England was thus tyrannically 
stripping her colonies of their well-earned laurels, 
and triumphantly weaving them into the stupen- 
dous wreath of her own martial glories, she was 
unwittingly teaching them to value themselves, 
and effectually to resist, on a future day, her un- 
just encroachments. 

" The pitiful tale of taxation now commences — 
the unhappy quarrel which resulted in the dis- 
memberment of the British Empire has here its 
origin. England, now triumphant over the united 
powers of France and Spain, is determined to re- 
duce to the condition of slaves her American 
subjects. 

" We might now display the Legislatures of the 
several States, together with the general Congress, 
petitioning, praying, remonstrating, and, like duti- 
ful subjects, humbly laying their grievances before 



94 LIFE OF 

the throne. On the other hand we could exhibit 
a British Parhament, assiduously devising means 
to subjugate America; disdaining our petitions; 
trampling on our rights ; and menacingly telling 
us, in language not to be misunderstood, ' Ye shall 
he slaves!' We could mention the haughty, ty- 
rannical, perfidious Gage, at the head of a standing 
army ; we could show our brethren, attacked and 
slaughtered at Lexington ; our property plundered 
and destroyed at Concord ! Recollections can still 
pain us with the spiral flames of burning Charles- 
town, the agonizing groans of aged parents, the 
shrieks of widows, orphans and infants ! 

" Indelibly impressed on our memories still live 
the dismal scenes of Bunker's awful mount, the 
grand theatre of New England bravery; where 
slaughter stalked, grimly triumphant ; where re- 
lentless Britain saw her soldiers, the unhappy in- 
struments of despotism, fixllen in heaps beneath 
the nervous arms of injured freemen ! 

" There the great Warren fought, and there, also, 
he fell ! Valuing life only as it enabled him to 
serve his country, he freely resigned himself a 
willing martyr in the cause of Liberty, and now 
he 's encircled in the arms of glory. 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 95 

^^ Peace to the patriot's shade — let no rude blas4 
Disturb the willow that nods o'er his tomb; 
Let orphan tears bedew his sacred urn, 
And Fame's loud trump proclaim the hero's name, 
Far as the circuit of the sphere extends. 

• " But, hauglity Albion, thy reign shall soon be 
o'er ! Thou shalt triumj^h no longer ; thine em- 
pire already reels and totters; thy laurels even 
now begin to wither and thy frame decay. Thou 
hast at length roused the indignation of an in- 
sulted people; thy oppressions they deem no 
longer tolerable. 

"The 4th of July, 1776, has now arrived, and 
America, manfully springing from the torturing 
fangs of the British Lion, now rises majestic in 
the pride of her sovereignty, and bids her eagle 
elevate his wings ! 

" The solemn Declaration of Independence is 
now pronounced, amidst crowds of admiring citi- 
zens, by the supreme council of our nation ; and 
received with the unbounded plaudits of a grateful 
people ! 

" That Avas the hour when patriotism w^as 
proved — when the souls of men were tried. It 
was then, ye venerable patriots, it was then you 
lifted the indignant arm, and unitedly swore to be 



96 LIFE OF 

free ! Despising such toys as subjugated empires, 
you then knew no middle fortune between Liberty 
and Death. Firmly relying on the protection of 
Heaven, unwarped in the resolution you had 
taken, you then, undaunted, met — engaged — de- 
feated the gigantic power of Britain, and rose 
triumphant over the aggressions of your enemies. 

" Trenton, Princeton, Bennington and Saratoga 
were the successive theatres of your victories, and 
the utmost bounds of creation are the limits of 
your fame ! The sacred fire of freedom, then en- 
kindled in your breasts, shall be perpetuated 
through the long descent of future ages, and burn, 
with undiminished fervor, in the bosoms of mil- 
lions yet unborn. 

" Finally, to close the sanguinary conflict, to 
grant to America the blessings of an honorable 
peace, and clothe her heroes with laurels, Corn- 
wallis, at whose feet the kings and princes of Asia 
have since thrown their diadems, was compelled 
to submit to the sword of Washington. 

" The great drama is now completed : our Inde- 
pendence is now acknowledged ; and the hopes of 
our enemies are blasted forever. Columbia is now 
seated in the forum of Nations, and the Empires 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 97 

of the world are amazed at the bright effulgence 
of her glory. 

" Thus, friends and citizens, did the kind hand 
of over-ruling Providence conduct us, through 
toils, fatigues, and dangers, to Independence and 
Peace. If piety be the rational exercise of the 
human soul, if religion be not a chimera, and if 
the vestiges of heavenly assistance be clearly 
traced in those events which mark the annals of 
our nation, it becomes us, on this day, in considera- 
tion of the great things which have been done for 
us, to render the tribute of unfeigned thanks to 
that God, who superintends the universe, and 
holds aloft the scale that weighs the destiny of 
nations. 

" The conclusion of the Revolutionary War did 
not accomplish the entirp achievements of our 
countrymen. Their military character was then, 
indeed, established; but the time was coming 
which should prove their practical sagacity — their 
ability to govern themselves. 

" No sooner was peace restored with England, 
(the first grand article of which was* the acknow- 
ledgement of our Independence,) than the old 
system of confederation, dictated at first by neces- 
sity, and adopted for the purposes of the moment, 

9 



98 LIFE OF 

was found inadequate to the government of an 
extensive empire. Under a full conviction of this, 
we then saw the people of these States engaged 
in a transaction, which is undoubtedly the greatest 
approximation towards human perfection the po- 
litical world ever yet witnessed, and which will, 
perhaps, forever stand in the history of the world 
without a parallel, A great Eepublic, composed 
of different States, whose interests in all respects 
could not be perfectly compatible, then came deli- 
berately forward, discarded one system of govern- 
ment, and adopted another, without the loss of 
one man's blood. 

" There is not a single government now existing 
in Europe, which is not based in usurpation, and 
established, if established at all, by the sacrifice 
of thousands. But, in the adoption of our present 
system of jurisprudence, we see the powers neces- 
sary for government, voluntarily flowing from the 
people, their only proper origin, and directed to 
the public good, their only proper object. 

" With peculiar propriety we may now felicitate 
ourselves on that happy form of mixed govern- 
ment- under which we live. The advantages re- 
sulting to the citizens of the Union are utterly 
incalculable, and the day when it was received by 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 99 

a majority of the States shall stand on the cata- 
logue of American anniversaries^ second to none 
but the birth-day of Independence. 

" In consequence of the adoption of our present 
system of government, and the virtuous manner 
in which it has been administered by a Washington 
and an Adams, we are this day in the enjoyment 
of peace, while war devastates Europe. We can 
now sit down beneath the shadow of the olive, 
while her cities blaze, her streams run purple with 
blood, and her fields glitter with a forest of bayo- 
nets ! The citizens of America can this day 
throng the temples of Freedom, and renew their 
oaths of fealty to Independence ; while Holland, 
our once sister republic, is erased from the cata- 
logue of nations ; while Venice is destroyed, Italy 
ravaged, and Switzerland — the once happy, the 
once united, the once flourishing Switzerland — 
lies bleeding at every pore ! 

" No ambitious foe dares now invade our country. 
No standing army now endangers our liberty. 
Our commerce, though subject in some degree to 
the depredations of the belligerent Powers, is ex- 
tended from Pole to Pole ; our Navy, though just 
emerging from non-existence, shall soon vouch for 
the safety of our merchantmen, and bear the 



100 LIFE OF 

thunder of Freedom around the ball. Fair science, 
too, holds her gentle empire amongst us, and 
almost innumerable altars are raised to her 
divinity. Yale, Providence and Harvard now 
grace our land ; and Dartmouth, towering majestic 
above the groves which encircle her, now inscribes 
her glory on the register of fame. Oxford and 
Cambridge, those oriental stars of literature, shall 
soon be outshone by the bright sun of American 
science, which displays his broad circumference in 
uneclipsed radiance. 

" Pleasing indeed were it here to dilate on the 
future o^randeur of America ; but we forbear, and 
pause for a moment to drop the tear of aifection 
over the graves of our departed warriors. Their 
names should be mentioned on every anniversary 
of Independence, that the youth of each succes- 
sive generation may learn not to value life, when 
held in competition with their country's safety. 

" Wooster, Montgomery and Mercer fell bravely 
in battle, and their ashes are now entombed on 
the fields that witnessed their valor. Let their 
exertions in their country's cause be remembered, 
while liberty has an advocate, and gratitude has 
a place in the human heart. 

^' Greene, the immortal hero of the Carolinas, 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 101 

has since gone down to the grave, loaded with 
honors, and high in the estimation of his country- 
men. The courageous Putnam has long slept with 
his fathers ; and Sullivan and Cilley, New Hamp- 
shire's veteran sons, are no more remembered 
among the living. 

" With hearts penetrated with unutterable 
grief, we are at last constrained to ask, where is 
our Washington ? where the hero who led us to 
victory? where the man who gave us freedom? 
where is he who headed our feeble army, wdien 
destruction threatened us? who came upon our 
enemies like the storms of winter, and scattered 
them like leaves before the Borean blast ? Where, 
0, my country ! is thy political saviour ? Where, 
0, humanity ! thy favorite son ? 

" The solemnity of the assemljly, the lamenta- 
tions of the American people will answer, 'Alas, 
he is no more — the mighty is Mien ! ' Yes, Ame- 
ricans, Washington is gone ! He is now consigned 
to dust, and sleeps in 'dull, cold marble.' The 
man who never felt a wound ])ut wlien it pierced 
his country — who never groaned but wdien fair 
Freedom bled — is now forever silent ! 

" Wrapped in the shroud of death, the dark 

dominions of the grave long since received him, 

9::: 



102 LIFE OF 

and he rests in undisturbed repose ! Vain were 
the attempt to express our loss — vain the attempt 
to describe the feehngs of our souls! Though 
months have rolled away since his spirit left this 
terrestrial orb, and sought the shining worlds on 
high, yet the sad event is still remembered with 
increased sorrow. The hoary-headed patriot of 
76 still tells the mournful story to the listening 
infant, till the loss of his country touches his 
heart, and patriotism fires his breast. The aged 
matron still laments the loss of the man beneath 
whose banners her husband has fought, or her son 
has fallen. At the name of Washington the sjon- 
pathetic tear still glistens in the eye of every 
youthful hero. Nor does the tender sigh yet 
cease to heave in the fair bosom of Columbia's 
daughters. 

^^ Farewell, Washington, a long farewell ! 
Thy country's tears embalm thy memory; 
Thy virtues challenge immortality; 
Impressed on grateful hearts thy name shall live, 
Till dissolution's deluge drown the world ! 

"Although we must feel the keenest sorrow at 
the demise of our Washington, yet we console 
ourselves with the reflection that his virtuous 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 103 

compatriot, his worthy successor, the firm, the wise, 
the inflexible Adams, still survives. Elevated by 
the voice of his country to the supreme executive 
magistracy, he constantly adheres to her essential 
interests, and with steady hand draws the dis- 
guising veil from the intrigues of foreign enemies, 
and the plots of domestic foes. 

" Having the honor of America always in view, 
never fearing when wisdom dictates, to stem the 
impetuous torrent of popular resentment, he 
stands amid the fluctuations of party and the ex- 
plosions of faction, unmoved as Atlas, 

" While storms and tempests thunder on its brow, 
And oceans break their billows at its feet. 

" Yet all the vigilance of our Executive, and all 
the wisdom of our Congress, have not been sufli- 
cient to prevent the country from being in some 
degree agitated by the convulsions of Europe. 
But why shall every quarrel on the other side of 
the Atlantic interest us in its issue ? Why shall 
the rise or the depression of every party there, 
produce here a corresponding vibration? Was 
this continent designed as a mere satellite to the 
other? Has not Nature here wrought all her 
operations on the broadest scale ? Where are the 



104 LIFE OF 

Mississippics and the Amazons, the Alleghanies 
and the Andes of Europe, Asia, and Africa ? Tlie 
natural superiority of America clearly indicates 
that it was designed to be inhabited by a nobler 
race of men, possessing a superior form of govern- 
ment, superior patriotism, and superior virtues. 

" Let the nations of the East vainly waste their 
strength in destroying each other. Let them aspire 
at conquest, and contend for dominion, till their 
continent is deluged in blood. But let none, how- 
ever elated by victory, however proud of triumph, 
ever presume to intrude on the neutral position 
assumed by our country. 

" Britain, twice humbled for her aggressions, has 
been taught to respect us. But France, once our 
ally, has dared to insult us ! She has violated her 
treaty obligations — she has depredated on our com- 
merce — she has abased our government and 
riveted the chains of bondage on our unhappy 
fellow-citizens. Not content with ravaging and 
depopulating the fairest countries of Europe ; not 
yet satisfied with the contortions of expiring re- 
publics, the convulsive throes of subjugated na- 
tions, and the groans of her own slaughtered 
citizens — she has spouted her fury across the 
Atlantic ; and the stars and stripes of the United 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 105 

States have been almost attacked in our harbors ! 
When we have demanded reparation, she has told 
us, 'Give us your money, and we will give you 
peace.' Mighty nation ! Magnanimous Republic ! 
Let her fill her coffers from those towns and cities 
wdiich she has plundered, and grant peace if she 
can to the shades of those millions whose death 
she has caused. 

" But Columbia stoops not to tyrants ; her spirit 
will never cringe to France ; neither a supercilious, 
five-headed Directory, nor the gasconading pilgrim 
of Egypt, will ever dictate terms to sovereign 
x\merica. The thunder of our cannon shall en- 
sure the performance of our treaties, and fulminate 
destruction on Frenchmen, till the ocean is crim- 
soned with blood and gorged with pirates ! 

" It becomes us, on whom the defence of our 
country will ere long devolve, this day most se- 
riously to reflect on the duties incumbent upon us. 
Our ancestors bravely snatched expiring Liberty 
from the grasp of Britain, whose touch is poison ; 
shall we now consign it to France, whose embrace 
is death ? We have seen our fathers, in the days 
of our country's trouble, assume the rough habiU- 
ments of war, and seek the hostile field. Too full 
of sorrow to speak, we have seen them wave a 



106 LIFE OF 

last farewell to a disconsolate, a woe-stung family. 
We have seen them return, worn down with fatigue, 
and scarred with wounds ; or we have seen them, 
perhaps, no more. For us they fought — for us 
they bled — for us they conquered. Shall we, 
their descendants, now basely disgrace our lineage, 
and pusillanimously disclaim the lineage be- 
queathed to us? Shall we pronounce the sad 
valediction to freedom and immortal Liberty on 
the altars our fathers have raised to her ? No 1 
The response of the nation is, ^ No ! ' Let it be 
registered in the archives of Heaven. Ere the 
religion we profess, and the privileges we enjoy 
are sacrificed at the shrine of despots and dema- 
gogues — let the sons of Europe be vassals ; let her 
hosts of nations be a vast congregation of slaves ; 
but let us, who are this day free, v/hose hearts are 
yet unappalled and whose right arms are yet 
nerved for war, assemble before the hallowed 
temple of' American Freedom, and swear to the 
God of our Fathers, to preserve it secure, or die 
at its portals ! " 

Such was the oration. If it pleased his audi- 
tory, we may well imagine with what delight his 
father pored over the printed pages of his son's 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 107 

maiden effort — the father, who, in his decUning 
days, when he engaged in conversation with a 
stranger, did not fail to speak of his " son at Dart- 
mouth." He was the old man's idol, and, as Dr. 
Alexander, of Princeton, remarks, of that son " it 
Avas easy to see that he was proud." 

There are faults in the style, extravagances to 
which Daniel's poetical mind led him, but which 
he afterwards corrected — and corrected by diligent 
labor. There are prejudices, received at second 
hand from traditionary sources, which his reading 
afterwards modified. And there are boastful ex- 
pressions about the young Republic of America, 
which a more mature taste led him to abandon, 
while he lost none of his true patriotism. But 
who can wonder at such things, at that day, and 
in a young man accustomed to such encounters as 
th^ following, which is related by Mr. Lanman : 

" Daniel's father and General Stark, the hero 
of Bennington, were fast friends on the battle- 
field, and afterwards in the walks of civil life. 
Professional business, early in Mr. Webster's career, 
called him to Manchester, the residence of General 
Stark. He found him surrounded with friends, 
and in the midst of convivial enjoyment. The 
parties were introduced, and the General, who no 



108 LIFE OF 

doubt knew all about the son from his old com- 
rade in arms, cried out, 'Why, Dan Webster, 
you're as black as your father; and he was so 
black that I never could tell when he was covered 
with powder, for he was one of those chaps who 
are always in the thickest of the fight ! ' " 



DANIEL "WEBSTER. 109 



CHAPTER \^. 

Specimens of Daniel Webster's College Composition — The Dart- 
mouth Gazette — Man — Essay on Peace — Eulogy on a Classmate 
— Washington— Later Poetry— "The Memory of the Heart"— 
Mr. Webster an Improvisator — Mr. Webster and the Child — 
Commencement Exercises — Mr. Webster's Disappointment — 
Professor Woodward's Opinion of Mr. Webster — The Pupil's 
kind Recollections — Lessons of Daniel Webster's Childhood. 

Poetry was a favorite exercise with Daniel 
Webster while in college. Indeed, it is said that, 
attracted by the brilliant and fervid style of Pre- 
sident Wheelock, he gave stronger indications of 
rising to eminence in poetry, than in law or 
politics. He often wrote in verse for public decla- 
mation ; and, in his early compositions, exhibited 
great fertility of imagination. Close study and 
laborious mental discipline tempered down this 
habit of mind, and made his style more terse and 
vigorous ; although to the last, at proper opportu- 
nities, he exhibited his power in pathos and word- 
painting. Some early specimens of his poetry, 
contributed to the " Dartmouth Gazette," we sub- 

10 



110 LIFE OF 

join. The contents of this sheet -were furnished 
by the Faculty and students of the College, and 
there was no more frequent contributor than 
Daniel Webster. The following extracts are from 
a poem published in the "Gazette." 

^^ When that grand period ia the Eternal Mind, 
LoDg pre-determined, had arrived, behold 
The universe, this most stupendous mass 
Of things, to instant being rose. This globe. 
For light and heat dependent on the sun, 
By power supreme was then ordained to roll, 
And on its surface bear immortal Man, 
Complete in bliss, the image of his God. 
His soul to gentle harmonies attuned, 
Th' ungoverned rage of boisterous passions knew not. 
Malice, revenge, and hate were then unknown ; 
Love held its empire in the human heart — 
The voice of love alone escaped the lip. 
And gladdening Nature echoed back the strain. 
0, happy state ! too happy to remain ; 
Temptation comes, and man a victim falls ! 
Farewell to peace, farewell to human bliss. 
Farewell ye kindred virtues, all farewell ! 
Ye flee the world, and seek sublimer realms. 
Passions impetuous now possess the heart, 
And hurry every gentler feeling thence. 

***** 
Is it now asked why man for slaughter pants, 
Raves with revenge, and with detraction burns 'i 



DANIEL WEBSTER. Ill 

Gro ask of jEtna why her thunders roar, 
Why her volcanoes smoke, and why she pours 
In torrents down her sides the igneous mass 
That hurries men and cities to the tomb ! 
These but the effects of bursting fires within, 
Convulsions that are hidden from our sight. 
And bellow under ground. Just so in man, 
The love of conquest and the lust of power 
Are but the efi"ects of passion unsubdued. 
T' avert the efi'ects, then deeply strike the cause, 
O'ercome the rage of passion, and obtain 
The empire over self. This once achieved. 
Impress fair virtue's precepts on the heart. 
Teach to adore his God, and love his brother ; 
War then no more shall raise the rude alarm, 
AVidows and orphans then shall sigh no more. 
Peace shall return, and man again be bless'd.'' 

In perfect accordance with the sentiment of 
this poetry, is a prize essay on peace, written by 
Daniel Webster while in college. " For what was 
man created," he asks, " but to cultivate the arts 
of peace and friendship, to beam charity and be- 
nevolence on all around him, to improve his own 
mind by study and reflection, to serve his God 
with all the powers of his soul, and finally, when 
the days of his years are numbered, to bid adieu 
to earthly objects with a smile, to close his eyes 
on the pillow of religious hope, and sink to repose 



112 LIFE OF 

in the bosom of his Maker ? Why, then, is the 
object of our existence unattained ? Why are the 
fairest countries on the earth desolated and de- 
populated mth the ravages of war ? Why are 
the annals of the world crowded with the details 
of murder, treason, sacrilege, and crimes that 
strike the soul with horror but to name them? 
0, corrupted nature ! 0, depraved man ! Those 
who are delighted with tales of bloodshed and 
destruction find a rich repast in the daily accounts 
from Europe, where 

" ^ Gigantic slaughter stalks with awful strides, 
And vengeful fury pours her copious tides/ 

" But, to the child of humanity, to the man of 
true benevolence, it is a sad and painful reflection, 
that iniquity should usurp the reign of justice, 
that the liberties and lives of millions should be 
sacrificed, to satiate the ambition of individuals, 
and that tyrants should wade through seas of 
blood to empire and dominion. War, under cer- 
tain circumstances, is proper, is just. When men 
take arms to burst those chains that have bound 
them in slavery, to assert and maintain those pri- 
vileges which they justly claim as natural rights, 
their object is noble, and we wish them success." 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 113 

As a specimen of the poetic style of Mr. Webster's 
early prose writings, we give the following extract 
from a eulogy pronounced by him on a classmate, 
who died in 1801. His name was Ephraim 
Simonds. He was universally beloved, and a 
dear friend of Mr. Webster. 

^^All of him that was mortal now lies in the 
charnels of yonder cemetery. By the grass that 
now nods over the mounds of Sumner, Merrill, 
and Cook, now rests a fourth son of Dartmouth, 
constituting another monument of man's mortality. 
The sun, as it sinks to the ocean, plays its depart- 
ing beams on his tomb, but they reanimate him 
not. The cold sod presses on his bosom; his 
hands hang down in weakness. The bird of the 
evening shouts a melancholy air on the poplar, 
but her voice is stillness to his ears. While his 
pencil was drawing scenes of future felicity, — 
while his soul fluttered on the gay breezes of 
hope, — an unseen hand drew the curtain, and 
shut him from our view." 

After a glowing exordium, the orator proceeded 
to paint the virtues of the deceased ; and dwelt 
with an especial earnestness upon his religious 
excellence. 

" To his surviving friends, gladdening is the re- 

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114 LIFE OF 

flection that he died, as he lived, a firm believer 
in the sublime doctrines of Christianity. * =5^ * * 
Whoever knew him in life, or saw him m death, 
will cordially address this honorable testimony to 
his memory : 

" ^ He taught us how to live, and 0, too high, 

The price of knowledge, taught us how to die ! ' " 



The eulogy was published, and after Mr. Web- 
ster left college other students committed portions 
of it for declamation. At the time of the original 
delivery a large audience was moved to tears, and 
even when repeated at second hand, by the young 
orators, its effect was not lost. This eulogy was 
admitted to be the most beautiful and finished 
performance of Mr. Webster's college life, — unsur- 
passed in the traditions of the college, as it was 
unequalled by contemporary efforts. The son of 
religious parents, and educated under religious in- 
fluences, the young orator did not fail to take the 
occasion to exhibit the power of religion to sustain 
and console in scenes of sorrow, persecution, and 
death. Scripture images and allusions were very 
frequently introduced by Mr. Webster in his 
writings and speeches. The following apostrophe 
to Washington is from one of his earliest poems : 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 115 

" Ah, Washington ! thou once didst guide the helm, 
And point each danger to our infant reahn ; 
Didst show the gulf where Faction's trumpets sweep, 
And the big thunders frolic o'er the deep ; 
Through the red wave didst lead our bark, nor stood, 
Like Moses, on the other side the flood. 
But thou art gone — yes, gone — and we deplore 
The man, the Washington, we knew before. 
But when thy spirit mounted to the sky. 
And scarce beneath thee left a tearless eye — 
Tell, what Elisha then thy mantle caught. 
Warmed with thy virtue — with thy wisdom fraught ?" 

The following graceful trifle was written in 
1839 — forty years after the time of which we are 
writing. It is entitled "The Memory of the 
Heart." 

" If stores of dry and learned lore we gain. 
We keep them in the memory of the brain ; 
Names, things, and facts, whate'er we knowledge call, 
There is the common ledger for them all ; 
And images on this cold surface traced 
Make slight impressions and are soon effaced. 

"But we've a page more glowing and more bright, 
On which our friendship and our love we write ; 
That these may never from the soul depart, 
We trust them to the memory of the heart. 
There is no dimming — no effacement here ; 
Each new pulsation keeps the record clear ; 
Warm, golden letters all the tablet fill, 
Nor lose their lustre till the heart stands still." 



116 LIFE OF 

Mr. Webster possessed a great and ready com- 
mand of words, and must have been a sparkling 
contributor to the recreations of the hterary 
society of which he was a member in Dartmouth, 
since in hiter years he has given frequent evi- 
dences of his capacity to trifle elegantly, as well 
as to wield the ponderous arms of logic and argu- 
ment. On one occasion, while Mr. Webster was 
Secretary of State, a farewell dinner was given to 
Senator Foote, who had been elected Governor of 
Mississippi, and was going home to assume his 
new duties. At the close of the dinner, Mr. 
Foote addressed Mr. Webster in a parting speech, 
in which he so exhausted the language of felici- 
tous compliment, that the company present were 
curious to know what Mr. Webster could say in 
answer. 

Gracefully to acquit one's-self in such a dilemma, 
is a task of which few men are capable, and those 
who have least depth can often support them- 
selves under the weight of compliment witli more 
address than the profoundest thinkers. Mr. Web- 
ster slowly rose from his chair and answered Mr. 
Foote, not in prose, but in poetry. The farther 
he proceeded, the happier was he in his improvi- 
sation ; and the company were completely taken 



DANIEL WERSTER. 117 

by surprise at this new phase of Mr. Webster's 
mind. The long slumbering poetry of his nature, 
extinguished as it had seemed for nearly half a 
century, by the cares of State and the labors of 
the law, burst forth to the admiration of those 
who had not suspected that such a vein existed in 
his composition. The poetry was far above medi- 
ocrity, and the circumstances of the occasion 
showed that it must have been extempore. At 
another time he was unexpectedly presented, at a 
banquet, with a bouquet of flowers, by a beautiful 
and graceful child. In a similar fit of inspiration 
he addressed her in acknowledgment, in a strain 
of prose poetry, abounding with graceful and 
beautiful images. Mr. Webster could also, upon 
occasion, trifle in an amusing style of composition. 
Among his college exercises, a classmate remem- 
bers a composition, every line of which ended 
in i-o-n. 

At the commencement of Dartmouth College, 
in the year in which he graduated, Mr. Webster's 
share of the public exercises was a discourse on 
the then recent discoveries in chemistry, particu- 
larly those of Lavoisier, then just made public. 
Mr. Webster also delivered an oration before " The 
United Fraternity," upon " The Lifluence of 



118 LIFE OF 

Opinion." A contemporary newspaper says: '-A 
numerous audience manifested a high degree of 
satisfaction at the genius displayed. Elegance of 
composition and propriety of delivery distin- 
guished the performance." 

One of Mr. Webster's eulogists, Mr. Hillard, 
says of him : " He was an ambitious man. He 
desired the highest office in the gift of the people. 
But on this subject as on all others there was no 
concealment in his nature. And ambition is not 
a weakness, unless it be disproportioned to the 
capacity. To have more ambition than ability is 
to be at once weak and unhappy. With him it 
was a noble passion, because it rested upon noble 
powers. He was a man cast in a heroic mould. 
His thoughts, his wishes, his passions, his aspira- 
tions, were all on a grander scale than those of 
other men. Unexercised capacity is always a 
source of rusting discontent. The height to which 
men may rise is in proportion to the upward force 
of their genius, and they will never be calm till 
they have attained their predestined elevation." 

The child is father of the man, and the same 
characteristics which Mr. Hillard notices in the 
character of the statesman, were observable in the 
young man amid the objects of college rivalry. 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 119 

His friends conceded liim the first rank, and in 
the debates and exercises of the society of which 
he was a member his position was unequivocah 
No one thought of Daniel Webster as second to^ 
any. But even giant intellect cannot supply that 
knowledge of particulars, which must be acquired 
by longer study and better opportunities than 
young Webster had enjoyed. While in the general 
summing up he was probably unquestionably su- 
perior to all his classmates, in the details he had 
not that proficiency which, by the strict rules of 
college judgment, entitles a student to the highest 
honors at graduation. He thought, as did his 
personal friends also, that the valedictory would 
be assigned to him in the Commencement exer- 
cises ; but the Faculty gave this honor to acquire- 
ments rather than to genius; and following, as 
was their duty, the custom and precedent of the 
institution, assigned the valedictory to him who 
strictly merited it, rather than to one who would 
undoubtedly have most distinguished himself, and 
honored the institution in the performance. Young 
Webster was grievously disappointed at this deci- 
sion, and, in the presence of his classmates, de- 
stroyed his diploma as Bachelor of Arts, before he 
left the college. We presume, however, the dis- 



120 LIFE OF 

appointment was of salutary influence. Had he 
graduated with the highest honors, he might have 
misunderstood his real position. The check this 
mcident gave to him was a good discipline. He 
was spurred to continued study after he left the 
institution ; a course he might not perhaps have 
taken had he carried away all the honors at Com- 
mencement, as he had done during the last two 
years in the unofficial judgment of the college. 

We are not to suppose, however, that Mr. "Web- 
ster's vexation about the circumstance was any- 
thing more than a temporary and natural emotion 
in a high-spirited boy. Nor did the Faculty regard 
it in any serious light, or abate their admiration 
of his genius, and their estimate of his capacities. 
Professor Woodward was accustomed to speak of 
Mr. Webster in high terms. He said : " That 
man's victory is certain who reaches the heart 
through the medium of the understanding. He 
gained me by combating my opinions ; for I often 
attacked him merely to try his strength." Pro- 
fessor Woodward died just as Mr. Webster was 
entering upon the practice of law, and the highest 
honors were paid to his memory by the Faculty, 
the Students, and the Alumni of the College. 
Mr. Webster lamented the death of his old friend, 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 121 

as a child laments the death of an mdulgent 
father. Mr. Webster, through life, often spoke of 
him. He said that Dr. Woodward taught him how 
to think, and to express his thoughts with brevity, 
instead of indulging in the redundant style to 
which at first he was too much inclined. " That 
great scholar," said he, " taught me how much I 
could strike out of whatever I wrote or spoke, 
and still have enough to communicate all I desired 

to say." 

Professor Woodward directed Mr. Webster's 
attention to the field in which he afterwards was 
so eminent. The themes of his conversation were 
the services and talents of such men as Ames, the 
Adamses, Henry, Hamilton, and other great Ame- 
rican statesmen and orators of that era. From 
the journals he became familiar with the speeches 
and characters of Pitt, Burke, and the other lead- 
ing men on the European side of the ocean. The 
Fourth of July oration which he delivered in his 
junior year, shows how well read he was in 
European politics and history. 

Thus passed the college life of Daniel Webster. 
Laborious in his studies and correct in his habits, 
he received the following praise from the venerable 

11 



122 LIFE OF 

professor of wlioin we have spoken : " Daniel was 
as regular as the sun. He never made a mistake; 
he never stooped to do a mean act; he never 
countenanced by his presence or conversation any 
college irregularities." Hon. Edward Everett thus 
sums the lessons of the youth of Daniel Webster : 
"The poor boy at the village school has taken 
comfort, as he has read that the time was when 
Daniel Webster, whose father told him he should 
go to college, if he had to sell every acre of his 
farm to pay the expense, laid his head on the 
shoulder of that fond and discerning parent, and 
wept the thanks he could not speak. The pale 
student who ekes out his scanty support by extra 
toil, has gathered comfort when reminded that 
the first jurist, statesman and orator of the time 
earned with his weary fingers, by the midnight 
lamp, the means of securing the same advantages 
of education to a beloved brother. Every true- 
hearted citizen throughout the Union has felt an 
honest pride, as he re-peruses the narrative, in 
reflecting that he lives beneath a Constitution and 
a Government, under which such a man has been 
formed and trained, and that he himself is com- 
patriot with him. He does more; he reflects 






DANIEL WEBSTER. 12 



o 



with gratitude that, in consequence of what that 
man has done, and written, and said — in the 
result of his efforts to strengthen the piUars of the 
Union — a safer inheritance of civil liberty, a 
stronger assurance that these blessings will en- 
dure, will descend to his children." 



124 LIFE OF 



CHAPTEE VI. 

Mr. Webster at Fryeburg — His Labors as Assistant Recorder of 
Deeds — Ilis Economy and Prudence — His continued Eflbrts at 
Improvement — Rev. Mr. Fessenden — Hon. T. W. Thompson — 
Mr. Webster resumes his Law Studies — Coke upon Littleton — 
Webster upon Coke — Webster as a Collector of Debts — Mr. 
Webster goes to Boston, and enters the Office of Hon. Christo- 
pher Gore — Character of that Gentleman — Mr. Webster's con- 
tinued Industry — He is tendered the Clerkship of a New Hamp- 
shire Court — Under Advice of Mr. Gore he declines it — The 
Astonishment and Chagrin of his Father. 



o 



As soon as Mr. Webster had completed his 
college course, he entered the office of his old 
friend, Mr. Thompson, as a student. But his 
father's poverty, and the necessity of provision 
for his brother's education, pressed hard upon him, 
and the necessity became obvious and imperious, 
that the young student, now in his twentieth 
year, should do something, not only for his own 
support, but to meet the requirements of his 
fathers family and his brother's tuition. Ezekiel 
had entered at Dartmouth during Daniel's last 
year there. 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 125 

In this dilemma, a way was opened. Eev. Dr. 
John Smith recommended him as principal of an 
academy at Fryeburg, in the State of Maine (then 
a district of Massachusetts). Dr. Smith, Pro- 
fessor of Greek, Hebrew, and Oriental languages 
at Dartmouth, was the author of a Latin Gram- 
mar, edited some of the classics, and published 
also a Hebrew Grammar. He was a man whose 
word had weight, and whose recommendation was 
no small honor. Thus, in Mr. Webster's early 
life, we find every one who had to do with his 
culture and training, added to their immediate 
instruction their good offices, to advance him still 
farther. His schoolmasters and his friend, Mr. 
Thompson, urged his being sent to Phillips Aca- 
demy. Dr. Abbott, the Principal of that institu- 
tion, united with Rev. Dr. Wood, a Trustee of 
Dartmouth, to procure his introduction there ; and 
upon leaving college, his late teachers recom- 
mended him to the trustees of the Fryeburg Aca- 
demy. It is stated that, since the establishment 
of Dartmouth College, over three-fourths of the 
students have taught school during three months 
in the year. There is a singular propriety and 
fitness in this. Information is scattered among 
the children of the people, who thus indirectly 

11* 



12G LIFE OF 

sustain the college, by aiding in the maintenance 
of the uncler-graduates. 

Mr. Webster remained at Fryeburg nine months, 
performing the duties of his post to the entire 
satisfliction of the trustees, who, at the close of 
his engagement j^assed a respectful and affectionate 
vote of thanks to the young teacher. The school- 
house was burned down many years since, but the 
records of the trustees of the Academy are still 
in existence. In 1831, Mr. Webster, w^iile return- 
ing with his son from a tour to the White Moun- 
tains, turned aside for a few days amid the scenes 
of his early labors in Fryeburg. There is Love- 
welfs Pond, of bloody memory, the scene of 
"Lovewell's fight." Here, in 1725, Captain John 
Lovewell, at the head of thirty-five men, met 
eighty savages, under a chief named Paugus. Of 
the Indians sixty were killed, and the rem^aining 
twenty fled, leaving the remains of Lovewell's 
band, only nine in number, masters of the field. 
The commanders of both parties were among the 
slain. Here, Mr. Webster, while engaged as a 
teacher, pursued the solitary rambles which were 
his recreation, with his book and fishing-tackle. 
But more interesting memorials than all others to 
his son, were the records above mentioned, and 



n\ 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 127 

two large bound volumes of deeds, in the office of 
the register, written by Mr. Webster's own hand, 
in a neat style of penmanship. In addition to 
his duties as preceptor, Mr. Webster copied deeds 
for the register's office, at the rate of twenty-five 
cents each ; and this more than met his personal 
expenses, reserving the whole of his salary, which 
w^as $350 per annum, to aid in meeting his bro- 
ther's expenses at Dartmouth, and to defray the 
cost of his own professional education. These 
volumes, large folios, are monuments of what is 
seldom found allied to great genius — patient 
industry ; and they excite the more w^onder when 
it is remembered that they were the extra work 
of less than a year, written after spending the 
usual hours in the duty of teaching. Mr. Web- 
ster laughingly said, as he looked at them, nearly 
half a century after they were written, that the 
ache, which so much writing caused, was not yet 
out of his fingers ! 

While at Fryeburg, Mr. Webster borrow^ed and 
read, for the first time, Blackstone's Commentaries. 
He had also the use of the library of Eev. Wm. 
Fessenden, and the advice and encouragement of 
that gentleman. Under his counsel, he reviewed 
his college course, and strengthened himself in the 



128 LIFE OF 

points of useful or agreeable knowledge, where he 
found or thought himself deficient. Of the Latin 
Classics he remained, through life, an admirer. 
Yet his was not the blind worship of the ancient 
which overlooks modern and contemporary excel- 
lence. Mr. Webster delighted to read and re- 
peruse wdiat pleased him ; preferring to master a 
few excellent books, rather than read indiscrimi- 
nately. While at Fryeburg, he committed to 
memory Fisher Ames's celebrated speech on the 
British Treaty. 

Keturning home in September, 1802, with what 
to him, at that day, was a full exchequer — be- 
tween two and three hundred dollars — Mr. Web- 
ster resumed his place in the office of his old 
friend and neighbor, Mr. Thompson. As this 
gentleman w^as Mr. Webster's first teacher in the 
science of law, our readers may be interested to 
know something of him. He was a graduate of 
Harvard College, Cambridge, and for some time a 
tutor in that university. He studied law with 
Theophilus Parsons, in Newburyport, and, when 
admitted to the bar, opened an office in Salisbury, 
where, as we have already stated, he became early 
interested in Mr. Webster. He had an extensive 
and lucrative practice, was a gentleman of honour- 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 129 

able character, and stood liigli in the public esti- 
mation, as well as in his profession. He was one 
of the trustees of Dartmouth, and represented New 
Hampshire once in the United States House of 
Kepresentatives. He was several times a member 
of the State Legislature, and served a term as a 
senator in Congress. In 1809, he left Salisbury, 
and removed to Concord, the capital of New 
Hampshire. He lived till 1819, long enough to 
discern the commencement of the fulfilment of 
the promise of his pupil's childhood, and to see 
his bare-footed oifice-boy enter upon a career in 
which he left his early friends far behind. 

For two years Mr. Webster pursued his studies 
w^ith Mr. Thompson, having a fellow-student in 
Parker Noyes, Esq., wdio was in the office when 
Mr. Webster entered, and who remained after he 
left, and succeeded to the business of Mr. Thomp- 
son, on his removal to Concord. Mr. Noyes 
shared in the interest which all who met young 
Daniel entertained for him, and he was a w^orthy 
companion for the ambitious student. Like all 
who were connected with Mr. Webster's youth, he 
was a man of a character to elevate and improve 
his junior. The office still remains as in the day 
when Webster read and studied there, fifty years 



130 LIFE OF 

ago. General Lyman, wlio has the interest of a 
devotee in all that pertains to Mr. Webster, thus 
speaks of the old building : — " There stand the 
identical tables, book-cases, desks and chairs, which 
stood there in Mr. Webster's time. It is still a 
law-office, but years and years have gone by since 
the venerable proprietor (who is rich enough to 
forego the practice of the law) gave audience to 
his clients in these rooms. There are the old 
redstries of law-suits, with entries made in the 
hand-writing of Mr. Webster ; and there are the 
old books on which his mind dwelt so intently, 
and from which he drew some of the knowledge 
to which the most eminent judges have so often 
listened, to be instructed and convinced." 

Mr. Webster had, as his first book to read. Coke 
upon Littleton, as was the custom at that period. 
As the result of his own experience, Mr. Webster 
gays: — "A boy of twenty, with no previous 
knowledge of such subjects, cannot understand 
Coke. It is folly to set him upon such an author. 
There are propositions in Coke so abstract, and 
distinctions so nice, and doctrines embracing so 
many distinctions and qualifications, that it re- 
quires an efibrt not only of a mature mind, but 
of a mind both strong and mature, to understand 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 131 

him. Why disgust and discourage a young man, 
by telling him he must break into his 2:>rofession 
throu£!:h such a wall as this ? " 

Many of the valuable works which have been 
published on the science of law, had not then 
appeared, and Mr. Webster had to grope in the 
dark, in unravelling black-letter webs, and de- 
ducing premises which have been unravelled hy 
others. Along with his law-studies he kept up 
his research into English history, and his enjoy- 
ment of the Latin and English Classics. He read, 
during these two years, Sallust, Coesar, and Ho- 
race. Some of the odes of the latter, which he 
translated, have been published. He devoted 
much time, also, to more intelligible law authori- 
ties than Coke. 

Before his second year was closed, he showed 
himself competent to advise, frequently writing 
out opinions upon the cases submitted by clients, 
which Mr. Thompson adopted and signed as his 
own. He had great tact in the arrangement of 
the facts to be drawn from witnesses on the stand, 
and in marshalling the testimony and arranging 
details. General Lyman relates an amusing anec- 
dote of the young student's success in collecting 
certain moneys due to a road-contractor. A turn- 



132 LIFE OF 

pike was to be built, the contract being founded 
on subscriptions pledged by property-holders in 
Portsmouth, and along the line of the proposed 
improvement. In the midst of the work, from 
some dissatisfaction, the subscribers refused to 
pay. In this dilemma, the contractor applied to 
Mr. Thompson for advice. He wrote urgent let- 
ters to the delinquents, and sent Mr. Noyes, his 
elder clerk, but neither of these measures pro- 
duced any money. Mr. Webster then volunteered. 
He came dashing into Portsmouth, with his horse 
in a foam ; and, giving out that he had come " to 
get the money," desired the presence of the Sheriff 
of the county. Asking the privilege of Hon. Jere- 
miah Mason, he sat down at his table, and com- 
menced the fillino; out of a writ for everv delin- 
quent; and, in those days, a debtor who could, 
must find bail, or be committed upon a writ, to 
await trial. A j)arley was soon proposed, and lie 
courteously but peremptorily stated his intention 
to deliver the writs, at a certain hour, to the 
Sheriff for execution, if the demands were not 
satisfied. When his horse was broudit to the 

o 

ofhce-door, for him to mount on his return, the 
delinquents finding that he was as good as his 
w^ord, and that costs and trouble were inevitable. 



t 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 133 

unless they redeemed their subscriptions, paid 
over the money as fast as he could receive it; and 
he hurried back to his principal with the funds, 
much to the astonishment of Messrs. Thompson 
and Noyes, and to the satisfaction of Captain 
Kimball, the contractor. 

Having acquired all that could be learned in 
the limited practice of a country office, Mr. Web- 
ster repaired to Boston. This was a step taken 
with the advice and consent of his father, who 
had consulted the circle of legal friends with 
whom, as a judge, he was acquainted. The young 
country-lawyer's clerk found, however, that he 
had left home in leaving New Hampshire. His 
application was declined by several of the leading 
members of the Suffolk Bar; but he persevered, 
ambitious, and sure of his own strength, until he 
obtained admission into the office of Hon. Christo- 
pher Gore. This was one of the fortunate events 
of Mr. Webster's life. In many other offices, his 
training would have been such as to make him a 
mere lawyer. Mr. Gore had at that time given 
up the common business of his profession — the 
details of ordinary practice, which Mr. Webster 
had already become familiar with. He did 
nothing as an attorney or solicitor; but being 

12 



134 LIFE OF 

much distinguislied as a counsellor, was consulted 
in affairs of such imjDortance as demanded great 
legal learning. He was a statesman and a civi- 
lian, a gentleman of the old school of manners, 
and a rare example of distinguished intellectual 
qualities, united with practical good sense and 
judgment. He was a graduate of Harvard, tho- 
roughly educated ; and in his classical tastes could 
sympathise with his pupil. He was acquainted 
with most of the great men of his time, at home 
and abroad ; having passed several years in Eng- 
land as a commissioner, under Jay's treaty, for 
liquidating the claims of citizens of the United 
States for seizures by the British cruisers, in the 
early wars of the French Revolution. His library, 
amply furnished with works of professional and 
general literature, his large experience of men and 
things, and his uncommon amenity of temper, 
combined to make the period passed by Mr. 
Webster, in his office, one of the pleasantest of 
his life. 

Mr. Knapp, the American Biographer, says of 
Mr. Gore's manner with his students, that he soon 
forgot or laid aside the office relation, and they 
stood to each other as mutual and intellectual 
friends, without regard to the difference in their 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 135 

respective ages. Mr. Gore had a happy perspi- 
cuity of style, and communicated what he had to 
convey with so much exactness, discrimination, 
and taste, that his hearers seized his meaning, and 
became familiar with the facts and principles 
brought forward, without labor. In commercial 
and international law, he had a high reputation. 
He had been several years familiar with the best 
English lawyers, the forms and proceedings in the 
courts, and the customs of counsellors and advo- 
cates ; and imparted to Mr. Webster a knowledge 
which books did not convey — the living law which 
governs courts, and can only be obtained by prac- 
tice and observation. 

The young lawyer had now reached a genial 
atmosphere, and his mind expanded under the 
realisation of the scope and magnitude of law as 
a science. The glimpses which he had discerned 
from a distance were verified, and distinctly ex- 
tended ; and the noble ambition which was part 
of his nature, found scope. But Daniel Webster 
was no dreamer, to lose time in speculations and 
abstractions, which could be made profitable by 
diligence. The advantages which Mr. Gore's 
office and assistance opened to him, were not 
thrown away. He regularly attended the sessions 



136 LIFE OF 

of the courts, and reported their decisions. He 
read with care the leading elementary works of 
common and municipal law, with the best authors 
on the law of nations — some of them for a second 
and third time; diversifying these strictly pro- 
fessional studies, with more agreeable but not less 
useful reading. History is often the interpreter 
of law; and to English History, as well as to 
American colonial and political memoirs and 
treatises, Mr. Webster devoted great attention. 
Shakspeare, Bacon, Milton, Burke, and Johnson, 
were said to be his favorites for miscellaneous 
reading. His chief study, however, was the com- 
mon law ; and more especially that part of it which 
relates to the now somewhat obsolete science of 
special pleading. He regarded this not only as a 
most refined and ingenious, but a highly instructive 
and useful branch of the law. Besides mastering 
all that was contained in Viner, Bacon, and other 
books then in common study, he w^aded through 
Saunders' Reports, in the original edition, and 
abstracted and translated into English, from the 
Latin and Norman-French, all the pleadings con- 
tained in the two folio volumes. This manuscript 
still remains, a monument of his industry. Both 
as an exercise of the mind, and as an acquisition 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 137 

of useful learning, this work was of great advan- 
tage to him in his professional career. By the 
familiarity which he thus obtained with the forms 
of special pleading, guided by the clear teaching 
and practical suggestions of Mr. Gore, young 
Webster came soon to be regarded as a great 
special pleader. An edition of Saunders has since 
appeared, which makes the useful parts of the 
work much more accessible ; but it is very much 
to be questioned whether the time saved by the 
student, by such aids, is not saved at the sacrifice 
of mental discipline. What is acquired by labor 
is longer retained, and more profoundly impressed 
upon the mind. 

In January, 1805, the clerkship of the Court 
of Common Pleas for the county of Hillsborough, 
New Hampshire, fell vacant. The office was 
worth $1500 per annum; in those days more than 
a competence — absolute wealth. The expenses 
incurred in educating his children pressed hard 
upon Daniel Webster's father, and he had mort- 
gaged his property to meet it. A mortgaged farm 
— his children away — and himself in years, made 
a complication of anxiety in which the children 
deeply shared, without, at that period, the means 
of removing it. Ezekiel Webster, who had his 

12* 



138 LIFE OF 

brothers habits of application, was teaching a 
select school in Boston, to assist in discharging the 
mortgage ; and for a portion of the time he added 
the labors of an evening school for sailors and 
apprentices. In addition to his other employ 
ments and avocations, Daniel assisted his brother, 
taking his place when ill, or when absent from 
any other cause. Some of the first men in Massa- 
chusetts, Edward Everett among them, are proud 
to say that thus they received a portion of their 
education from Daniel Webster. In his speech 
upon the life and character of Webster, delivered 
at the meeting of the citizens of Boston, Mr. 
Everett feelingly and gracefully alluded to this 
circumstance ; and referring to other and later 
connections with the great dead which he had 
enjoyed, and to the evidences of his friendship, of 
which he was affectionately proud, he quoted a 
letter from Mr. Webster, which he had received a 
short time before his death. In this letter, Mr. 
Webster thus refers to their friendship : " We now 
and then see, stretching across the heavens, a 
clear, blue, cerulean sky, without cloud, or mist, 
or haze. And such appears to me our acquaint^ 
ancC; from the time when I heard you for a week 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 139 

recite your lessons in the little school-house in 
Short Street, to the date hereof." 

Mr. Webster's father was one of the Judges of 
the Court of Common Pleas for the county of 
Hillsborough. He had only to express a wish 
that his son should receive the appointment, and 
that wish was gratified. Delighted with his suc- 
cess, he at once advised his son of it. The young 
man who felt so warmly for his friends, had deeper 
feelings for his kindred ; and Daniel's delight was 
not less than his father's. Now their embarrass- 
ment was at an end, and the inconvenience which 
his aged parents were suffering on account of their 
children, would be removed. He regarded it as 
an early realisation of the benefits which an edu- 
cation had promised him; and though it was 
certainly a sacrifice of the high hopes of distinc- 
tion which his young ambition had promised, he 
was glad, at such a sacrifice, to promote the 
happiness of those to whom his heart was knit. 
Under the influence of these feelings, he an- 
nounced his good fortune to his legal counsellor 
and friend, and was astonished to hear Mr. Gore 
peremptorily and vehemently interpose his dissent 
— his utter disapprobation of the proposed change. 



140 LIFE OF 

" But," replied Daniel, " my father is poor, and I 
wish to make him comfortable in his old age." 

Mr. Gore admitted that such an appointment as 
Daniel had received, was a great compliment to 
so young a man ; he acknowledged the force of 
family affection ; but told him he would be much 
more able to gratify his friends by his professional 
labors, than in a clerkship. " But," he continued, 
" you should think of the future more than the 
present. Become once a clerk, and you will 
always be a clerk, with no chance of obtaining a 
higher position. Go on, and finish your studies. 
You are poor enough, but there are greater evils 
than poverty. Live in no man's favor; what 
bread you do eat, let it be the bread of indepen- 
dence; pursue your profession; make yourself 
useful to your friends, and a little formidable to 
your enemies, and you have nothing to fear." 

Mr. Webster appreciated the force of these 
suggestions, so far as his own wishes and hopes 
were considered ; but there still remained all the 
difficulties in the case — the real difficulties, which 
words could not remove — his father's embarrass- 
ments. In this dilemma, a friend, Eufus Green 
Emery, advanced the money necessary to relieve 



I ; 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 141 

his father's estate; and Mr. Webster, thus forti- 
fied, hastened home to announce in person to his 
father, his determination. He looked round for a 
country sleigh, for in those days there were no 
stages to the interior of New Hampshire ; and 
finding one which was returning from market, 
took passage with the owner, and in two or three 
days was set down at his father's door. The same 
journey is now made by railroad in about four 
hours. At that time the winter was the great 
season for travelling ; and the snow, hard beaten, 
was the nearest approach to a railroad whicli 
people knew. The writer well remembers the 
business activity of a Boston winter in the olden 
time; when the inn-yards were crowded with 
loads of frozen pork in sledges, and barrels of 
apples, and other country produce, carefully 
wrapped in blankets and old quilts to keep out 
the frost, were exchanged for groceries, and other 
foreign products. Mr. March, in his interesting 
w^ork, " Daniel Webster and his Contemporaries," 
thus describes the scene between Daniel and his 
father : 

" It was evening when he arrived. I have 
heard him tell the story of the interview. His 



142 LIFE OF 

fiitlier was sitting before the lire, and received him 
with manifest joy. He looked feebler than he 
had ever appeared; but his countenance lighted 
up, on seeing his clerh stand before him in good 
health and spirits. He lost no time in alluding to 
the great appointment — said how spontaneously 
it had been made — how kindly the Chief Justice 
proposed it, and with what unanimity all assented. 
During this speech, it can well be imagined how 
embarrassed Mr. Webster felt, compelled, as he 
thought from a conviction of duty, to disai:)point 
his father's sanguine expectations. Nevertheless, 
he commanded his countenance and voice, so as 
to reply in a sufficiently assured manner. He 
spoke gaily about the office ; expressed his great 
obligation to their Honors, and his intention to 
write them a most respectful letter ; if he could 
have consented to record any body's judgments, he 
should have been proud to have recorded their 
Honors'.' He proceeded in this strain, till his 
father exhibited signs of amazement; it having 
occurred to him, at length, that his son might all 
the time be serious. ' Do you intend to decline 
this ofiice ?' he asked. ' Most certainly,' replied 
his son ; ' I cannot think of doing otherwise. I 




DANIEL WEBSTER DECLINES THE CLERKSHIP. 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 143 

mean to use my tongue in the courts, not my pen ; 
to be an actor, not a register of other men's 
actions.' 

" For a moment, Judge Webster seemed angry. 
He rocked his chair slightly ; a flash went over 
his eye, softened by age, but even then black as 
jet; but it immediately disappeared, and his 
countenance resumed its habitual serenity. Pa- 
rental love and partiality could not, after all, but 
have been gratified with the son's devotion to an 
honorable and distinguished profession, and his 
evident confidence of success in it. ^Well, my 
son,' said the Judge, 'your mother has always 
said that you would come to something or nothing, 
she was not sure which. I think you are about 
settling that doubt for her.' " 

In a few days, Daniel returned to Boston, and 
the subject was never again alluded to in the 
family. Mr. Webster says that his father's eyes 
were brimful of the tears of gratitude, as he spoke 
of the appointment ; and that when he heard his 
son decline it, he could scarce believe his own 
ears. Before Mr. Webster left home, he had the 
satisfaction of giving his father the means to 
remove the mortgage, and to pay all the debts 



144 LIFE OF 

which had been contracted on account of himself 
and his brother. The money came, as we have 
stated, in part from Mr. Emery, and in part from 
Daniel's earnings, and his brother's. He wrote a 
grateful and respectful letter to the judges, and 
felt that restored serenity which every one expe- 
riences when a troublesome question is deter- 
mined. 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 145 



CHAPTER VII. 

Mr. Webster admitted to the Bar — Establishes himself in New 
Hampshire — Ilis first cause — Death of his father — A son's 
testimony — The trial of a dumb depredator — Fourth of July 
Oration in 1806 — Opinions of France — Relations of Agri- 
culture and Commerce — Monthly Anthology — Mr. Webster's 
first criminal case — His fatiguing journeys — His abhorrence 
of affectation — Mode of addressing a jury — Admission to the 
Superior Court. 

In March, 1805, Mr. Gore moved the admission 
of his pupil, Daniel Webster, to practise at the 
Bar of the Court of Common Pleas, for Suffolk 
County. In introducing him, Mr. Gore spoke 
with emphasis of his remarkable talents and 
attainments, and confidently predicted his future 
eminence. The prediction had, no doubt, its 
influence in producing its own fulfilment; both 
by its stimulus wpon the mind of the young 
lawyer, and by its weight upon those who heard, 
from Mr. Gore, a commendation much warmer 
than the mere course of professional courtesy 
would warrant or require. 

13 



146 LIFE OF 

Mr. Webster had resolved to establish hmiself 
in his native state. Local attachments and filial 
affection induced him to this determination ; and 
perhaps he felt a natural diffidence, which led him 
to try his first practice in a narrower sphere than 
Boston, and to avail himself of his early friend- 
ships and connections. His Boston acquaintances 
and friends, hearing of Mr. Webster's intention to 
settle in New Hampshire, promised him their 
business ; and as at that time there were many 
mercantile failures, Mr. Webster commenced at 
once a lucrative employment in the collection of 
debts. After he had been admitted to the Bar, 
he went from Boston to Amherst, where his 
father's court was in session, and returned home 
with him. His original purpose had been to 
settle in Portsmouth, that being the only seaport 
in the state, and the place of the principal com- 
mercial business. But the age of his father, then 
in his sixty-seventh year, determined Daniel to 
remain near him ; and he opened an office in the 
neighboring village of Boscawen. 

In September of the same year, 1805, Mr. 
Webster first appeared in court for the trial of 
a cause. His father was on the bench, and the 
court was held in Plymouth, then the county-seat 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 147 

of Grafton. Among the members of the Bar 
present were Mr. Webster's old friend, Mr. Thomp- 
son, and several others to whom he had been in 
the habit of looking up with reverence and 
respect. The Sheriff of the court was Col. William 
Webster, a connection of the family, who had 
never seen Daniel Webster before, and who relates 
that he was ashamed to see so lean and feeble a 
young man come into court bearing the name of 
Webster. He thought when Mr. Webster rose, 
that he could not stand up long. His misgivings 
were soon dissipated, however, as the debutant 
had well prej)ared himself; and in this, his maiden 
speech, surprised the court, and caused confident 
auguries of his future eminence. It was such an 
introduction to the law-seeking public, as there- 
after ensured him crowds of clients. 

Mr. Webster's father died in the Spring follow- 
ing. Let us quote Mr. Webster's own language 
respecting him : " My father, Ezekiel Webster, 
was the handsomest man I ever saw, except my 
brother Ezekiel. He died in April, 1806. I 
neither left him nor forsook him. My opening an 
office at Boscawen was that I might be near him. 
I closed his eyes. He died at sixty-seven years 
of age, after a life of exertion, toil, and exposure ; 



148 LIFE OF 

a private soldier, an officer, a legislator, a judge; 
every thing a man could be, to Avliom learning 
' never had disclosed her ample page.' My first 
speech at the bar was made when he was on the 
bench. He never heard me a second time. He 
had in him what I recollect to have been the 
character of some of the old Puritans. He was 
deeply religious, but not sour. On the contrary, 
good-humored and facetious, showing, even in his 
age, with a contagious laugh, teeth all as white as 
alabaster ; gentle, soft, playful ; and yet having a 
heart in him that he seemed to have borrowed 
from a lion. He could frown — a frown it was — 
but cheerfulness, good-humor, and smiles, com- 
posed his most usual aspect." 

As throwing light on the character of father 
and children, we preserve the following anecdote 
of the early years of the two brothers, Ezekiel 
and Daniel. The incident is related by a corres- 
pondent of the Boston Traveller. The vegetables 
in the garden had suffered very much from the 
depredations of a woodchuck. Daniel, some ten or 
twelve years old, and his older brother Ezekiel, 
had set a trap, and succeeded in capturing the tres- 
passer. Ezekiel proposed to kill the animal, and 
end at once all further trouble from him; but 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 149 

Daniel looked with compassion on his meek, dumb 
captive, and offered to let him again go free. The 
boys could not agree, and each appealed to their 
father to decide the case. " Well, my boys," said 
the old gentleman, " I will be the Judge. There 
is the prisoner (pointing to the woodchuck) and 
you shall be the counsel, and plead the case for 
and against his life and liberty." 

Ezekiel opened the case with a strong argu- 
ment, urging the mischievous nature of the crimi- 
nal, the great harm he had already done, said 
that much time and labor had been spent in his 
capture, and now, if he was suffered to live and 
go again at large, he would renew his depreda- 
tions, and be cunning enough not to suffer himself 
to be caught again, and that he ought now to be 
put to death ; that his skin was of some value, 
and that to make the most of him they could, it 
would not repay half the damage he had already 
done. His argument was ready, practical, to the 
point, and of much greater length than our limits 
will allow us to occupy in relating the story. 

The father looked with pride upon his son, who 
became a distinguished jurist in his manhood. 
" Now, Daniel, it is your turn ; I'll hear what you 
have to say." 

13* 



150 LIFE OF 

'Twas his first case. Daniel saw that the plea 
of his brother had sensibly affected his father, the 
Judge; and as his large, brilliant black eyes 
looked upon the soft, timid expression of the ani- 
mal, and as he saw it tremble with fear in its 
narrow prison-house, his heart swelled with pity, 
and he appealed with eloquent words that the 
captive might again go free. God, he said, had 
made the woodchuck ; he made him to live, to 
enjoy the bright sunlight, the pure air, the free 
fields and woods. God had not made him, or 
anything, in vain ; the woodchuck had as much 
right to live as any other living thing ; he was 
not a destructive animal, as the wolf and the fox 
were ; he simply ate a few common vegetables, of 
which they had a plenty, and could well spare a 
part ; he destroyed nothing except the little food 
he needed to sustain his humble life; and that 
little food was as sweet to him, and as necessary 
to his existence, as was to them the food upon his 
mother's table. God furnished their own food; 
he gave them all they possessed ; and would they 
not spare a little for the dumb creature, who 
really had as much right to his small share of 
God's bounty, as they themselves had to their 
portion ? yea, more, the animal had never violated 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 151 

the laws of his nature, or the laws of God, as man 
often did ; but strictly followed the simple, harm- 
less instincts he had received from the hand of 
the Creator of all things. Created by God's hand, 
he had a right, a right from God, to life, to food, 
to liberty ; and they had no right to deprive him 
of either. He alluded to the mute but earnest 
pleadings of the animal for that life, as sweet, as 
dear to him, as their own was to them, and the 
just judgment they might expect if in selfish 
cruelty, and cold heartlessness, they took the life 
they could not restore again — the life that God 
alone had given. 

During this appeal, the tears had started to the 
old man's eyes, and were fast running down his 
sun-burnt cheeks ; every feeling of a father's heart 
was stirred within him ; he saw the future great- 
ness of his son before his eyes ; he felt that God 
had blessed him in his children beyond the lot of 
common men; his pity and sympathy were awa- 
kened by the eloquent words of compassion, and 
the strong appeal for mercy ; and forgetting the 
Judge in the man and the father, he sprang from 
his chair, (while Daniel was in the midst of his 
argument, without thinking he had already won 
his case,) and turning to his older son, dashing 



152 LIFE OF 

the tears from his eyes, exclaimed, " Zeke, Zeke, 

YOU LET THAT TVOODCHUCK GO !" 

On the fourth of July, 1806, Mr. Webster was 
chosen by the people of Concord to deliver an 
oration. This, like the oration of 1800, is not 
included in Mr. Webster's published works, and 
we avail ourselves of the abstracts and extracts 
made by General Lyman, that our readers may 
compare it with his earlier performances. The 
subject of the speech was the possibihty of 
preserving the present form of our government, 
the solitary representative of republican institu- 
tions. " When we speak," said Mr. Webster, " of 
lyreserving tJie GoiistitiUion, we mean not the paper 
on which it is written, but the spirit which dwells 
in it. Government may lose all of its real char- 
acter, its genius, its temper, without losing its 
appearance. Republicanism, unless you guard it, 
will creep out of its case of parchment, like a 
snake out of its skin. You may have a Despot- 
ism under the name of a Republic. You may 
look on a government and see it possess all the 
external modes of Freedom, and yet find nothing 
of the essence, the vitality of Freedom in it; just 
as you may contemplate an embalmed body, 
where oil hath preserved proportion and form, 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 153 

and nerves without motion, and vein.s void of 
blood." 

Among the most dangerous enemies of our 
government, he instanced the passions and vices 
of the people. But considering that evil commu- 
nications corrupt systems as well as individuals, 
he enlarged on the dangers which threatened its 
well-being from its foreign relations. Intimately 
connected as was our country with foreign nations 
by commerce, which, from its nature, cannot exist 
without rivalship, he inferred the necessity and 
policy of granting it a protection sufficient to 
defend it from the interruptions and aggressions 
which the spirit of rivalship, and the injustice of 
other nations may dispose them to infer. The 
want of protection to commerce will be more fatal 
to our agriculture than either the drought or the 
mildew ; for in this instance, were it left to our 
choice, we should certainly imitate the conduct of 
David, by choosing " to fall into the hands of the 
Lord (for his mercies are great), and not to Ml 
into the hands of men." 

The following sketch of the character of the 
French empire will be read with interest, as 
coming from a strong mind, contemporary with 
the events on which it dwelt. 



154 LIFE OF 

" We seem to be carried back to the Roman 
age. The clays of Ccesar are come again. Even a 
greater than Cassar is here. The throne of the 
Bourbons is now filled by a new character of the 
most astonishing fortunes. A new dj^nasty hath 
taken place in Europe. A new era hath com- 
menced. An empire is founded, more populous, 
more energetic, more warlike, more powerful, than 
Ancient Rome, at any moment of her existence. 
The basis of this mighty fabric covers France, 
Holland, Spain, Prussia, Italy, and Germany; 
embracing perhaps an eighth part of the popula- 
tion of the globe. 

" Though this Empire is commercial in some 
degree and in some parts, its ruling passion is not 
commerce but war. Its genius is conquest, its 
ambition is fame. With all the immorality, the 
licentiousness, the prodigality, the corruption of 
declining Rome, it has the enterprise, the courage, 
the ferocity, of Rome in the days of the Consuls. 
AYhile the French Revolution was acting, it was 
difficult to speak of France without exciting the 
rancor of political party. The cause in which the 
leaders professed to be engaged, was too dear to 
American hearts to suffer their motives to be 
questioned, or their excesses censured with just 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 155 

severity. But the Revolutionary drama is now 
closed — the curtain hath Mien on those tremend- 
ous scenes, which, for fourteen years, held the eye 
of the world — that meteor which, ' from its horrid 
hair shook pestilence and war,' hath now passed 
off into the distant regions of space, and left us 
to speculate coolly on the causes of its appearance." 

It will be perceived that, passing from boyhood 
to manhood in years, Mr. Webster had not changed 
his opinions in relation to France. His political 
preferences were strongly marked. At the time 
when Mr. Webster delivered this oration, the gun- 
boat policy of Mr. Jefferson had been brought 
forward, and the embargo hinted at, thus leaving 
foreign commerce undefended, and protecting by 
annihilating it. Mr. Webster's political bias led 
him to strong opposition to any policy which 
should include the abandonment of protection to 
the naval interests. He reviewed the position of 
the United States in regard to both the great 
belligerents, Britain and France ; and urged the 
importance of protecting the commercial interests 
of the country. 

" Nothing is plainer," he said, " than this : if 
we will have commerce, we must protect it. This 
country is commercial as well as agricultural. 



156 LIFE OF 

Indissoluble bonds connect him who ploughs the 
land with him wdio ploughs the sea. Nature has 
placed us in a situation favorable to commercial 
pursuits, and no government can alter the destina- 
tion. Habits confirmed by two centuries are not 
to be changed. An immense portion of our 
property is on the waves. Sixty or eighty 
thousand of our most useful citizens are there, 
and are entitled to such protection from the 
government as their case requires." 

Thus, though Mr. Webster had at this time no 
thoughts of becoming a politician, we find him 
honestly exhibiting his political preferences, and 
exhibiting the opinions of which at no distant 
period, he was to become the j)ublic champion. 
He was attentive to his profession, and not neglect- 
ful of his literary tastes and avocations. From 
his quiet office in Boscawen he furnished articles 
for the Monthly Anthology, published at Cam- 
bridge, and supported by the pens of the most 
distinguished American writers of that day. It 
was edited by his old Phillips Academy friend and 
fellow-student, Joseph Stevens Buckminster; and 
in this field Mr. Webster could give free scope to 
his brilliant imagination. 

The second effort of Mr. Webster at the bar 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 157 

was the defence of a man arraigned for murder. 
He was not yet admitted to practice in the court 
in which the man was tried; and perhaps the 
case was one of guilt so obvious that only the 
custom of the court made the assignment of coun- 
sel necessary. The murder was foul and horrid, 
perpetrated on an innocent man ; a fellow prisoner 
for debt. They were in the same room, and no 
provocation was given by the victim which could 
in any degree palliate the offence. The flxct of 
killing could not be questioned, and the defence 
was narrowed down to a single point, the insanity 
of the prisoner. This plea, while often least 
tenable in fact, gives scope for legal ingenuity in 
an inverse ratio to its basis. There were no proofs 
of the man's former insanity — but his malignity 
of disposition was notorious. Mr. Webster argued 
that the very enormity of the deed, perpetrated 
without any of the motives which operate upon 
most minds, furnished presumptive proof of the 
prisoner's alienation of mind ; and even the cool 
deliberation and apparent serenity which he ex- 
hibited at the time the deed was done, were proofs 
that reason was perverted, and that a momentarj^ 
insanity had seized him. 

The court and jury were deeply interested in 

14 



158 LIFE OF 

the 3'oung advocate's masterly analysis of the 
human mind. lie opened all the springs of action, 
and described and classed every faculty of the 
mind so lucidly and philosophically that it was a 
new school for those who heard him. He showed 
the different shapes insanity assumed, from a 
single current of false reasoning upon a particular 
subject, while there is a perfect soundness of mind 
upon every other ; to the reasoning aright upon 
wrong premises and to the reasoning wrong upon 
right premises, up to those paroxysms of madness, 
when the eye is filled with strange sights, and the 
ear with strange sounds, and reason is entirely 
dethroned. As he laid open the infirmities of 
human nature, the jury were in tears and the by- 
standers were still more affected; but common 
sense prevailed over argument and eloquence, and 
the wretch was condemned and executed. The 
speech lost nothing of its effect upon the people 
by the decision of the jury, and was long the 
subject of conversation. It is much to be regretted 
that less eloquent pleas have often since defeated 
in our courts the ends of justice. 

Mr. Webster's early career at the bar was 
attended with as much labor and unremitted 
study as his course through college had been. 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 159 

Indeed, he graduated with a reputation which it 
was no small task to sustain. lie might, as many 
other precocious students have done, have lived a 
short time upon his college laurels, and then have 
passed into ohlivion. Life, with him, was an 
earnest struggle ; and as a specimen of the physi- 
cal endurance which he sustained, he stated to a 
friend that he had, during his early years as a 
lawyer, frequently, at sunset, put his saddle on 
his horse, and ridden Mty miles, to be present at 
the opening of court the next morning. On one 
occasion, after a toilsome series of days and nights, 
he was journeying on horseback, along a lonely 
road, when he fell into a profound study upon the 
merits of the case he was to argue the next morn- 
ing. Long and tedious was the trial, as it pro- 
ceeded in the chamber of his brain ; when, just as 
the jury were to pronounce the verdict, a drop of 
water fell on his hand, and he awakened from 
sleep, comfortably seated under a tree, whither his 
horse had carried him. After this nap in the 
saddle, he hurried away, to finish, in his waking 
hours, the work he had done in his dream. 

Li the long years of Mr. Webster's legal prac- 
tice, nearly h?Jf a centur}^, it is stated that he was 
employed as junior counsel in not more than about 



160 LIFE OF 

a dozen instances. He had, almost from the first, 
not so much a reputation to achieve, as to defend. 
Much was expected of him; and while other 
young practitioners were gaining experience in 
lesser cases, and inferior courts, Mr. Webster was 
thrown at once into a line of practice which re- 
quired all his talents, and imposed upon him 
constant study. He always prepared himself with 
great industry and care — not relying upon his 
conscious powers, but supporting his eloquence by 
facts and precedents. He considered it an insult 
to his auditory, at all periods of his life, to come 
before them unprepared. He abhorred affectation 
— and most of all, the affectation of speaking on 
the spur of the moment, and Avithout previous 
thought. A friend of his, in speaking of his 
habits and characteristics, says : " I have often 
thought, from my long acquaintance with Mr. 
Webster, that if other men could think as long, 
and as closely, and as profoundly, their public 
efforts would equal his ; for I have never known 
a man in my life who made such preparation for 
what he had to say before the court, before the 
Senate, or before the people. He did not think 
he had any right to offer extemporaneous thoughts 
before a multitude of his fellow-citizens, no matter 



DANIEL "WEBSTER. 161 

who they were. He thought he was to dress 
himself in his best garments — tliat he was to 
appear and deliver his best thoughts, in his best 
style, to those who stood to hear him. And thence 
it happens that he always gave, in the course of 
his long life, thoughts which were the result of 
thorough preparation: the public came to under- 
stand that what Mr. Webster said was worth 
reading. Hence, what he did say was read more 
than the productions of any man who was his 
compeer in the country." 

In opening a case, he secured his jury by a 
plain, intelligible statement, using such clear and 
unadorned language as could not be mistaken, and 
thus gave evidence of his intention not to distort 
or to mislead. He gained their confidence before 
he appealed to their reason. 

In May, 1807, Mr. Webster was admitted as 
attorney and counsellor of the Superior Court of 
New Hampshire; and in September he relm- 
quished his office and practice in Boscawen to his 
brother Ezekiel, and removed to Portsmouth. 



14 



ii: 



162 LIFE OF 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The New Hampshire Bar — Mr. Webster and Jeremiah Mason — 
Professional Anecdotes — The Drilled Witness — Webster's Farm 
— Mr. AVebster's Marriage — State of the Country and of Parties 

— New England Interests — The Bar as an Introduction to 
Public Life — Mr. Webster in " caucus" — Popular Enthusiasm 

— Mr. Webster's Professional Industry — Ilis Habits of Early 
Rising — His Letter upon the Morning. 

Among the distinguished men with whom Mr. 
Webster was brought into competition at the bar 
of the Superior Court of New Hampshire, were 
Jeremiah Mason, Edward St. Loe Livermore, 
Wilham King Atkinson, and George Sullivan. 
Jeremiah Smith was Chief Justice of the State ; 
and having been an early and attached friend of 
Mr. Webster's flither, the son succeeded to his 
friendship. Samuel Dexter and Joseph Story, of 
Massachusetts, were occasional practitioners in the 
New Hampshire courts. To meet such men, Mr. 
Webster was obliged assiduously to prepare him- 
self; and by close study to supply his lack of 
experience. He sounded his clients thoroughly, 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 163 

and explored every point which the opposite party 
were likely to make; acquainting himself care- 
fully with the weakness as well as the strength ' 
of his own side, and of the other. He w^as very 
rarely surprised by any new or unexpected testi- 
mony ; and even though some unlooked-for deve- 
lopment occurred, he betrayed no astonishment. 

As Mr. Mason and Mr. Webster were the 
acknowledged heads of the bar, they were usually 
engaged in the same causes, and most generally 
opposed to each other. They travelled together, 
occupied apartments in the same house, and sat 
at the same table ; by their friendly intercourse 
exciting the wonder of men, who could not com- 
prehend how the two great advocates could deal 
such hard blows in argument, and still be warm 
friends. Mr. Mason died in 1849 ; and Mr. Web- 
ster, in a speech at the meeting of the Suffolk 
Bar, made the following allusion to their early 
and continued friendship : " The proprieties of 
this occasion compel me, with whatever reluctance, 
to refrain from the personal feelings which arise 
in my heart upon the death of one with whom I 
have cultivated a sincere, affectionate, and un- 
broken friendship, from the day that I commenced 
my own professional career, to the closing hour of 



164 ' LIFE OF 

his life. I will not say, of the advantages which 
I have derived from his intercourse and conver- 
sation, all that Mr. Fox said of Edmund Burke ; 
but I am bound to say, of my own professional 
discipline and attainments, whatever they may be, 
I owe much to that close attention to the dis- 
charge of my duties, which I was compelled to 
pay for nine successive years, from day to day, by 
Mr. Mason's efforts and arguments at the same 
bar. Fas est ah lioste doceri ; and I must have 
been unintelligent indeed, not to have learned 
something from the constant displays of that 
power which I had so much occasion to see and 
to feel." While conversing upon his connection 
with Mr. Mason, Mr. Webster once said : " If any 
body should think me somewhat familiar with the 
law on some points, and should be curious enough 
to desire to know how it happened, tell him that 
Jeremiah Mason compelled me to study it. He 
w^as my master." 

It is related that the first meeting of Mr. Web- 
ster with Jeremiah Mason, as opposing counsel, 
was in a criminal case. The person accused being 
a man of some note, great efforts w^ere made to 
defend him; and Jeremiah Mason, as the most 
prominent member of the Portsmouth Bar, was 



DANIEL WEBSTER. IGo 

engaged for the defence. In the absence of the 
prosecutmg attorney, Mr. Webster was delegated 
to conduct the prosecution for the State. The 
accused w^as acquitted ; but Mr. Mason acknow- 
ledged the high, open, and manly ground taken 
by Mr. Webster. He did not resort to technicali- 
ties, but confined himself to the law and the facts, 
and commanded the high respect of bench and 
of bar. 

An amusing anecdote of Mr. Webster's early 
professional career, as related by himself, is given 
in Lanman's " Private Life." " Soon after com- 
mencing the practice of my profession at Ports- 
mouth," said Mr. Webster, " I was w^aited on by 
an old acquaintance of my father's, resident in an 
adjacent county, who wished to engage my pro- 
fessional services. Some years previous, he had 
rented a farm, with the clear understanding that 
he could purchase it, after the expiration of his 
lease, for one thousand dollars. Finding the farm 
productive, he soon determined to own it ; and as 
he laid aside money for the purchase, he w^as 
tempted to improve what he felt certain he should 
possess. But his landlord, perceiving the property 
was greatly increased in value, coolly refused to 
receive the one thousand dollars, when, in due 



166 LIFE OF 

time, it was presented ; and when his extortionate 
demand of double that sum was refused, he at 
once brought an action of ejectment. The man 
had but the one thousand doUars, and an unble- 
mished reputation ; yet I willingly undertook his 
case. 

" The opening argument of the plaintiff s 
attorney left me little ground for hope. He 
stated that he could prove that my client hired 
the farm ; but there was not a word in the lease 
about the sale, nor was there a word spoken about 
the sale when the lease was signed, as he could 
prove by a witness. In short, his was a clear 
case, and I left the court-room at dinner-time with 
feeble hopes of success. By chance I sat at table 
next a newly-commissioned militia officer, and a 
brother lawyer began to joke him about his lack 
of military knowledge. ' Indeed,' he jocosely 
remarked, ^you should write down the orders, and 

get old W to beat them into your sconce, as 

I saAV him this morning with a paper in his hand, 
teaching something to young M in the court- 
house entry.' Can it be, thought I, that old 

W , the plaintiff in the case, was instructing 

young M , who was his reliable witness ? 

"After dinner the court was reopened, and 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 167 

M was put on the stand. He was examined 

bj the phiintiff's counsel, and certainly told a 
clear, plain story, repudiating all knowledge of 
any agreement to sell. When he had concluded, 
the opposite counsel, with a triumphant glance, 
turned to me, and asked me if I was satisfied. 
' Not quite,' I replied. 

"I had noticed a piece of paper protruding 

from M 's pocket, and hastily approaching 

him, I seized it, before he had the least idea of 
my intention. ' Now,' I. asked, ' tell me if this 
paper does not detail the story you have so clearly 
told, and if it is not all false ?' The witness huno; 
down his head with shame; and when the paper 
was found to be what I had supposed, and in the 

very hand-writing of old W , he lost his case 

at once. Nay, there was such a storm of indig- 
nation against him, that he soon removed to the 
West. 

" Years afterwards, visiting New Hampshire, I 
was the guest of my professional brethren at a 
public dinner; and towards the close of the 
festivities, I Avas asked if I would solve a great 
doubt by answering a question. ^Certainly.' 
' Well then, Mr. Webster, we have often wondered 
how you knew what was in M 's pocket !' 



V y> 



168 LIFE OF 

Another anecdote of Mr. Webster's professional 
life in Portland is characteristic of the ma^n. One 
of his clients, after gaining a certain suit, found 
himself unable to pay his lawyer, and insisted 
upon deeding to him a piece of land, situated in 
a neighboring county. So, for some years the 
matter rested, until, happening to be in the 
neighborhood, it occurred to Mr. Webster to look 
up his property. He found an old woman living 
upon it alone, in an old house among the rocks. 
He questioned the old lady about the farm, and 
was told that it was the property of a lawyer 
named Webster, and that she was daily expecting 
him to come and turn her out of doors. Mr. 
Webster made himself known, assured her that 
she need not fear any such summary process, 
made her a liberal present, and took his departure; 
not, however, till he had made her glad by 
accepting her humble hospitality. The place is 
still known as " Webster's Farm," but it is believed 
that he never took formal possession of the 
property. 

Mr. Webster was now in a position to settle 
himself in life, and he w\as united in marriage 
with Grace Fletcher, a young lady who had been 
admitted to a share in his hopes and plans, long 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 169 

before tliey had attained that definiteness which 
they now possessed. She was about his own age, 
and lived to share many of his successes, and to 
verify the truth of their young hopes in the fame 
of her husband. 

From the complexion of Mr. Webster's early 
orations, specimens of which we have given, the 
reader has perceived that he had decided political 
opinions, and a manly way of expressing them. 
The early part of the present century was marked 
by much greater excitement upon political subjects 
than we have witnessed since. There may have 
been less printing and j^ublishing, but there was 
deeper feeling, for more was at stake. The policy 
and powers of the government had not been 
settled. Many questions which are now deter- 
mined by precedent, had then to be decided for 
the first time. And, in the decision, mere ab- 
stractions w^ere not the points at stake, but the 
wealth and prosperity of the people and the very 
existence of the government. The great European 
powers, at war with each other, were disposed to 
treat this country as a mere colonial dependency 
of Europe, and to decide upon international rights 
and questions without recognising her existence 
as a power among the nations of the earth. Hon. 

15 



170 LIFE OF 

Edward Everett, in his memoir of Daniel Webster, 
thus sketches the position of the nation and of the 
parties within it. 

" The poUtics of the country were in such a state, 
that there was scarcely any course which could be 
pursued w^ith entire satisfaction by a patriotic 
young man, sagacious enough to penetrate behind 
mere party names and to view public questions in 
their true light. Party spirit ran high; errors 
had been committed by ardent men on both sides ; 
and extreme opinions had been advanced on most 
questions, which no wise and well-informed person 
at the present day would be willing to espouse. 
The United States, though not actually drawn to 
any great length into the vortex of the French 
Revolution, were powerfully affected by it. The 
deadly struggle of the two great European belli- 
gerents, in which the neutral rights of this country 
were grossly violated hy both, gave a complexion 
to our domestic politics. A change of administra- 
tion, mainly resulting from difference of opinion 
in respect to our foreign relations, had taken place 
in 1801. If we may consider President Jefferson's 
inaugural address as the indication of the principles 
on which he intended to conduct his administration, 
it was his purpose to take a new departure, and 



DANIEL ^VEBSTER. 171 

to disregard the former party divisions. ' We 
have,' said he, in that eloquent state paper, ' called 
by different names, brethren of the same principle. 
We are all republicans, we are all federalists.' 

" At the time these significant expressions were 
uttered, Mr. Webster, at nineteen, was just leaving 
college, and preparing to embark on the voyage 
of life. A sentiment so liberal was not only in 
accordance with the generous temper of youth, 
but highly congenial with the spirit of enlarged 
patriotism which has ever guided his public course. 
There is certainly no individual who has filled a 
prominent place in our political history, who has 
shown himself more devoted to principle, and less 
to party. While no man has clung with greater 
tenacity to the friendships which spring from 
agreement in political opinions, no man has been 
less disposed to find in these associations an in- 
strument of monopoly or exclusion in favor of 
individuals, interests, or sections of the country. 

^^But, however catholic may have been the 
intentions and wishes of Mr. Jefferson, events both 
at home and abroad were too strong for him, 
and defeated that policy of blending the two great 
parties into one, which has always been a favorite 
— perhaps we may add a visionary project — with 



172 LIFE OF 

statesmen of elevated and generous characters. 
The aggressions of the belligerents on our neutral 
commerce still continued; and, by the joint efiect 
of the French Berlin and Milan Decrees, and the 
British Orders in Council, it was all but swept 
from the ocean. In this state of things, two 
courses were open to the United States as a grow- 
ing neutral power : one, that of prompt resistance 
to the aggressive policy of the belligerents; the 
other, that which was called the ' restrictive sys- 
tem,' which consisted in an embargo on our own 
vessels, with a view to withdraw them from the 
grasp of the foreign cruisers, and in laws inhibiting 
commercial intercourse with England and France. 
There was a division of opinion in the cabinet of 
Mr. Jefferson, and in the country at large. The 
latter policy was finally adopted. It fell in with 
the general views of Mr. Jefferson, against com- 
mitting the country to the risks of a foreign war. 
His administration was also strongly pledged to 
retrenchment and economy; in the pursuit of 
which a portion of our little navy had been 
brought to the hammer, and a species of shore 
defence substituted, which can now be thought of 
only with mortification and astonishment. 

" Although the discipline of party was suffi- 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 173 

ciently strong to cause this system of measures to 
be adopted and pursued for years, it was never 
cordially approved by the people of the United 
States of any party. Leading republicans, both 
at the South and the North, denounced it. With 
Mr. Jefferson's retirement from office, it fell rapidly 
mto disrepute. It continued, however, to form 
the basis of our party divisions, till the war of 
1812. In these divisions, as has been intimated, 
both parties were in a false position; the one 
supporting and forcing upon the country a system 
of measures not cordially approved of even by 
themselves; the other, a powerless minority, 
zealously opposing those measures, but liable for 
that reason to be thought backward in asserting 
the neutral rights of the country. Among these, 
mature beyond his years, was Mr. Webster." 

We have already quoted, from his Concord 
oration, his strong arguments in favor of cherish- 
ing and defending the commercial interests of the 
United States. New England was deeply inte- 
rested in commerce. New Hampshire, with its 
one sea-port, has in its coat-of-arms a ship on the 
stocks. The active industry of New England, 
without the agricultural facilities of other States, 
was necessarily drawn into commerce and the 

15- 



174 LIFE OF 

fisheries. The commercial restrictions which pre- 
ceded the war, fell heavily upon this portion of 
the confederacy ; and it is asking too much of any 
community, however patriotic, to demand their 
hearty approval and advocacy of measures wdiich, 
if they benefit the country, do it at the expense 
of a portion of the citizens. There is always a 
choice of measures ; and it is entirely too harsh a 
judgment to say of those wdio prefer one course 
above another, that they are necessarily deficient 
in patriotism, because they elect that political 
course which w^ould do them least injury. 

The Bar has usually been, in the United States, 
the best introduction to public life. The talents 
and eloquence of lawyers become matters of pul> 
lie notoriety. Parties are anxious to secure the 
aid of talent. Governments invite its co-operation 
and assistance. The people at large expect and 
demand that the powers which are exhibited for a 
fee, in the cases of individuals before the courts, 
should be heard for love of country, in behalf of 
the nation ; and the natural and necessary ambi- 
tion of men who are conscious of intellectual gifts, 
and wdio derive mental nourishment from the 
excitement of admiration, predisposes them to 
listen to these calls. We arc not to w^onder. then, 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 175 

that Mr. Webster was early drawn into politics. 
There is a sympathy between that science and the 
science of law — if indeed they may not more 
properly be treated as different branches of the 
same subject. But while party spirit ran high, 
and amounted in many cases to personal bitter- 
ness, it is but justice to Mr. Webster to say that in 
this respect, throughout his whole life, he kept a 
watch upon himself; and his course is unmarked 
by the personal quarrels which have been the 
unfortunate incidents in the lives of many other 
statesmen. • 

When he entered the political arena, it was at 
once to be acknowledged as a leader. It was a 
tribute to his commanding talents ; for he never 
resorted to the arts which designing men practise 
to obtain popular favor. Indeed, in this respect 
he did less to conciliate and win general affection 
than would have been perfectly allowable. He 
was direct and bold, coming openly to what he 
designed to say, without circumlocution, without 
evasion, and without flattery. 

Mr. Webster was one of the leading spirits in 
many political gatherings in and near Portsmoutli. 
We shall not particularise, but present, from the 
account of a witness, an idea of his manner and 



176 LIFE OF 

his subject matter. The writer says that he was 
travelhng through Portsmouth, and was about to 
leave the place. His carriage had been brought to 
the inn door, when the hostler said, " Sir, are you 
going away ? Mr. Webster is to speak to-night." 
The gentleman, having heard this before from 
others, his equals, and finding even the hostler at 
the inn the admirer of Mr. Webster, determined 
to wait, and see and hear for himself this man 
who could win " golden opinions from all sorts of 
people." He went early to the Hall where the 
meeting was to be held, and found it already filled 
to overflowing. Courtesy to a stranger, joined, 
perhaps, to a natural pride in their townsmen, 
induced members of the crowd to give wa}^, and 
leave him room to stand. 

A tremendous noise soon announced that the 
orator had arrived ; but upon the organization of 
the meeting, several gentlemen preceded Mr. 
Webster. They were listened to with polite 
apathy, but the enthusiasm of the crowd was 
reserved for Daniel Webster. When he arose at 
length, it was some moments before the cheering 
would permit him to be heard. When order was 
restored, he went on with great serenity and ease 



DANIEL AVEBSTER. 177 

with his remarks, without making the slightest 
effort to command applause. 

The audience quietly listened. Now and then 
there were murmurs of approbation, w^hich indi- 
cated that the crowd needed only some one to set 
the example, to break out into applause. But 
every indication of such a demonstration was 
repressed, that all might hear; and when the 
speech closed, the pent-up enthusiasm broke out 
in long and heart-felt demonstrations of admira- 
tion. The speech was strong, gentlemanly, and 
appropriate, but without a spark of the dema- 
gogue in it. The gentleman whose impressions 
we are recording, says that the most remarkable 
fact to him was that a promiscuous audience 
should have had the good taste to relish sound, 
close reasoning, in a place where vague declama- 
tion is usually received with most favor. 

But w^hile thus interested in public concerns, 
Mr. Webster was still indefatigable in his profes- 
sional pursuits. The secret by which he accom- 
plished so much, may be gathered from the 
following reminiscence, given by a legal gentle- 
man in Providence, in an address in honor of his 
memory. 

"1 had directions from a client, in 1818 or 



178 LIFE OF 

1819, to consult him upon a case of some import- 
ance, a case in whicli were presented numerous 
cross-questions of law and equity, so ensnared 
and entangled, that it required days and weeks 
of hard labor to discover a channel-way over its 
shoals and amid its rocks. I called on Mr. 
Webster on the evening of my arrival in Boston, 
and stated the case. He saw its difficulties, and 
observed that the early morning was the period 
for such a labor, and requested me to meet him 
in his study at an early hour, which I accordingly 
did. 

" Before the hour of dinner he had threaded all 
the avenues and cross-paths of the labyrinth, and 
he gave an opinion so clear and so comprehensive, 
that at the dinner-table I was induced to ask him 
what had been his system of mental culture. He 
gave me an outline, and the reasons in support of 
it. It was this — that so far as training was con- 
cerned, the system which experience had shown 
to be most conducive to physical, was equally 
conducive to mental power. That the training 
in both cases should be the same. That it was 
a law of our natures, that the body or the mind 
that labored constantly must necessarily labor 
moderately. He instanced the race-horse, which 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 179 

by occasional efforts, in wliicli all its power is 
exerted, followed by periods of entire rest, would 
in time add very largely to its speed ; and the 
great walkers or runners of our own race, who 
from small beginnings, when fifteen or twenty 
miles a day fatigued them, would in the end walk 
off fifty miles at the rate of five or six miles an 
hour. I think that he also mentioned the London 
porter, who at first staggering under a load of 150 
or 200 pounds, would in time walk off with six 
or eight hundred pounds with apparent ease. 
The same law governs the mind. When em- 
ployed at all, all its powers should be exerted to 
its utmost. Its fatigue should be followed by its 
entire rest. He stated that he was generally in 
his study at five in the morning ; that whatever 
mental occupation employed him, he put out all 
his power; and when his mental vision began 
to be obscure, he ceased entirely, and resorted to 
some amusement or light business as a relaxa- 
tion. I remember distinctly his quotation from 
Chesterfield : " Do one thing at a time ; and wliat- 
ever is worth doing at all is worth doing well." 

Many write and talk eloquently of the morning, 
who have no practical knowledge of its beauties 
and its salubrity. Mr. Webster acted as well as 



180 LIFE OF 

wrote. We subjoin here a letter written by him 
several years ago, and dated at Richmond, at five 
o'clock on a Spring morning. 

" My dear Friend : — Whether it be a favor or 
an annoyance, you owe this letter to my early 
habits of rising. From the hour marked at the 
top of this page, you will naturally conclude that 
my companions are not now engaging my atten- 
tion, as we have not calculated on being early 
travellers to-day. 

" This city has a pleasant seat. It is high ; the 
James River runs below it; and when I went out, 
an hour ago, nothing was heard but the roar of 
the Falls. The air is tranquil, and its temperor 
ture mild. It is morning, and a morning sweet 
and fresh, and delightful. Every body knows the 
morning in its metaphorical sense, applied to so 
many occasions. The health, strength, and 
beauty of early years, lead us to call that period 
the ^morning of life.' Of a lovely young woman, 
we say she is ' bright as the morning,' and no one 
doubts why Lucifer is called ^ son of the morning.' 

" But the morning itself, few people, inhabitants 
of cities, know any thing about. Among all our 
good people, not one in a thousand sees the sun 
rise once in a year. They know nothing of the 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 181 

morning. Their idea of it is, that it is that part 
of the day which comes along after a cup of coffee, 
or a piece of toast. With them morning is not a 
new issuing of light, a new bursting forth of the 
sun, a new waking up of all that has life from a 
sort of temporary death, to behold again the works 
of God, the heavens and the earth ; it is only a 
part of the domestic day, belonging to reading the 
newspapers, answering notes, sending the children 
to school, and giving orders for dinner. The first 
streak of light, the earliest purpling of the East, 
which the lark springs up to greet, and the dee^Dcr 
and deeper coloring into orange and red, till at 
length the 'glorious sun is seen, regent of day' — 
this they never enjoy, for they never see it. 

" Beautiful descriptions of morning abound in 
all languages, but they are the strongest, perhaps, 
in the East, where the sun is frequently the object 
of worship. King David speaks of taking to 
himself 'the wings of the morning.' This is 
highly poetical and beautiful. The wings of the 
morning are the beams of the rising sun. It is 
thus said that the sun of righteousness shall arise 
'with healing in his wings' — a rising that shall 
scatter life, and health, and joy, throughout the 
Universe. Milton has fnie descri])tions of morn- 

IG 



182 LIFE OF 

ing, but not so many as Shakspeare, from whose 
writings pages of the most beautiful imagery, all 
founded on the glory of morning, might be ful- 
filled. 

" I never thought that Adam had much the 
advantage of us, from having seen the world while 
it was new. The manifestations of the power of 
God, like His mercies, are ' new every morning,' 
and fresh every moment. We see as fine risings 
of the sun as Adam ever saw ; and its risings are 
as much a miracle now^ as they were in his day, 
and I think a good deal more ; because it is now 
a part of the miracle that for thousands and thou- 
sands of years he has come to his appointed time, 
without the variation of a millionth part of a 
second. Adam could not tell how this might be. 
I know the morning — I am acquainted with it, 
and I love it. I love it fresh and sweet as it is — 
a daily new creation, breaking forth and calling 
all that have life, and breath, and being, to new 
adoration, new enjoyments, and new gratitude." 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 18 



Q 



CHAPTER IX. 



Mr. AVebster a Candidate for Congress — His account of his Ser- 
vices in the State Legislature — Mr. Webster elected Represen- 
tative from New Hampshire — Appointed a Member of the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs — Mr. Webster's First Speech — 
Resolution of Inquiry relative to the Berlin and Milan Decrees 
— Character and Impression of Mr. Webster's Speech — Remarks 
upon the Navy and the Embargo — Loss of Mr. Webster's House 
by Fire — Re-elected to Congress — Position of the Country after 
the War— Attitude of the South towards a Tariff— Mr. Webster's 
Course on the Bank and Tariff Questions — Death of Mr. Web- 
ster's Mother. 

In 1812, Mr. Webster having reached thirty 
years, the age which the Constitution requires, 
w^as brought forward by his friends as a candidate 
for Representative from New Hampshire, in the 
National Legislature. His whole public life has 
been spent in the service of the United States. 
In allusion to this subject, he said m a speech to 
the citizens of Syracuse, N. Y. : 

" It has so happened that all the public services 
which I have rendered in the world, in my day 
and generation, have been connected%with the 



184 LIFE OF 

general government. I think I ought to make an 
exception. I was ten days a member of the 
Massachusetts Legislature (laughter), and I turned 
my thoughts to the search of some good object in 
which I could be useful in that position ; and after 
much reflection, I introduced a bill which, with 
the general consent of both Houses of the Massa- 
chusetts Legislature, passed into a law, and is now 
a law of the State, which enacts that no man in 
the State shall catch trout in any other than tlie 
old way, wdth an ordinary hook and line. (Great 
laughter.) With that exception, I never w^as 
connected, for an hour, with any State govern- 
ment in my life. I never held office, high or low, 
under any State government. Perhaps that was 
my misfortune. 

"At the age of thirty I w\as in New Hamp- 
shire practising law, and had some clients. John 
Taylor Gilman, who for fourteen years was 
governor of the State, thought that, a young 
man as I was, I might be fit to be an Attorney 
General of the State of New Hampshire, and he 
nominated me to the Council; and the Council, 
taking it in their deep consideration, and not 
happening to be of the same politics as the 
governor and myself, voted, three to one, that I 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 185 

was not competent, and very likely they were 
right. (Laughter.) So you see, gentlemen, I 
never gained promotion under any State govern- 
ment." 

The people, however, thought that Mr. Webster 
was fit to represent his native State in Congress. 
The ticket upon which his name led was elected 
by a majority of from two to three thousand. 
The contest was close. The election was then by 
^^ general ticket," all the names being placed on 
one ballot, and the vote of the whole State 
requiring to be ascertained, before it could be 
known who was elected. Those were not the 
days of railroads and magnetic telegraphs, and 
suspense played with the fears and hopes of those 
who felt an interest in the the contest. When at 
length it was ascertained that the " Federal 
ticket," on which Mr. Webster's name was borne, 
w\as elected, the rejoicings of the townsmen and 
immediate constituents was very great. It was 
unquestionably a great triumph to Mr. Webster ; 
and his brother Ezekiel shared his pleasure. 
Joseph, the waggish brother, who would by this 
have perceived that Daniel was admitted to 
^Mvuow as much as do the rest of his family," 
died two years previously. He was a genial and 

16 ^= 



186 LIFE OF 

kind-hearted man, and his brothers deeply la- 
mented him. 

Col. Samuel L. Knapp, one of the earliest biog- 
raphers of Mr. Webster, thus speaks of his 
personal character and opinions upon his entrance 
into public life. " Fully persuaded of the true 
course, he followed it with so much firmness and 
principle, that sometimes his serenity was taken 
by the furious and headstrong as apathy; but 
when a fair legitimate opportunity offered, he 
came out with such strength and manliness, that 
the doubting were satisfied, and the complaining 
silenced. In the worst of times, and in the dark- 
est hour, he had faith in the redeeming qualities 
of the people. They might be wrong ; but he saw 
into their true character sufficiently to believe that 
they would never remain permanently in error. 
In some of his conversations upon the subject, 
he compared the people in their management of 
national affairs to that of the sagacious and indefar 
tigable raftsmen on his own Merrimack, who had 
falls and shoals to contend with on their way to 
the ocean; guiding skilfully and fearlessly over 
the former, between rocks and through breaks, 
and when reaching the sand-banks, jumping off 
into the water with lever, axe, and oar, and then 







1 

ill 



WEBSTER EXPOUNDING THE CONSTITUTION. 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 187 

pushing, cutting, and directing, till they made all 
go, to the astonishment of those looking on. 

Mr. Webster took his seat in Congress at the 
extra session of 1813. He had prepared himself 
for his post as a legislator, as he was accustomed 
always to prepare himself for any new position, 
by careful examination of the duties it would 
impose, their nature, and his capacity for them. 
Mr. Clay, one of the great leaders of the war 
party, had come into the House upon that 
impulse, and was elected Speaker by a large 
majority. Mr. Webster, the known representa- 
tive of a different interest, was by the Speaker 
placed upon the Committee on Foreign Affairs, at 
such a juncture the most important committee in 
the House. His fellow-members were Calhoun, 
Grundy, Jackson of Virginia, and Ingersoll and 
Fish of New York. Whether this appointment 
was the consequence of some rumors of his talents, 
then little known in Washington, and entirely 
untried everywhere, as a legislator, or whether 
Mr. Clay, bound in courtesy to give New England 
a voice, chose Mr. Webster as a new member, and 
not obnoxious from any previous Congressional 
passages, it is impossible to say. Undoubtedly, 
both reasons had their weight. 



188 LIFE OF 

Mr. Webster's first speech in Congress was made 
in introducing a series of resolutions, requesting 
the President to inform the House when, and by 
whom, and in what manner the first intelligence 
of the repeal of the Decrees of Berlin and Milan 
was given to the government of the United States. 
The object of these resolutions was to elicit a 
communication on this subject from the Executive 
which would unfold the proximate causes of the 
war with Great Britain, so far as they were con- 
nected with these decrees. No full report of this, 
Mr. Webster's maiden speech in Congress, has ever 
been published. The resolutions involved nice 
points of inquiry, and produced a long debate — 
an event unforeseen and undesired by Mr. Web- 
ster. The first Orders in Council of Great Britain, 
were issued in retaliation for the Berlin Decree of 
Napoleon. The French answered by the Milan 
Decree, and the British retaliated by further 
Orders in Council. The operation of both was to 
destroy the commerce of neutrals altogether ; for 
while the English decrees made vessels liable to 
seizure which did not touch at a British port and 
obtain what amounted to a new clearance, the 
French decree "denationalised" all vessels which 
submitted to any such recognition of British supre- 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 189 

macy. Between the two fires, neutral commerce 
could not fail to be destroyed. The British Orders 
were conditional in their operation, ceasing upon 
the revocation of the French decrees ; and one of 
the causes of complaint against Great Britain was, 
that the Berlin and Milan Decrees were repealed, 
while Great Britain still refused to rescind the 
Orders in Council. The American diplomatists 
insisted that the French decrees had ceased to 
exist ; but the French Government failed to sup- 
ply any proof of the flict, until after war was 
actually declared between the United States and 
Great Britain. Then, a document bearing a 
previous date was produced. Everything, even 
to this day, is involved in doubt, except the fact 
that the two belligerents, in their war of annoy- 
ance against each other, cared nothing about the 
United States or their commerce ; and the farther 
fact that the French Government did not hesitate 
to employ falsehoods, evasions, and forged state 
papers, by which an unsatisfactory and half-way 
revocation of her Orders was procured from Great 
Britain — the administration of that country 
yielding it with about as good a grace as a man 
would pay a check which he had strong suspicions 
was counterfeit. 



190 LIFE OF 

No full report of Mr. Webster's speech has been 
preserved. We gather, from extemporaneous 
accounts, that he placed m juxtaposition the con- 
flicting statements and evidence. The response 
to the resolutions, after they had been the subject 
of several weeks' debate, was a full report to the 
House of all that they called for, the majority for 
their passage being large. The debate was not so 
much upon the expediency of the resolutions, as 
upon the general subject. It took a wide range ; 
but after his opening speech, Mr. Webster did not 
address the House upon the subject. 

Mr. March, who has carefully collated the 
newspaper reports, and the reminiscences of those 
who Avere present at Daniel Webster's first appear- 
ance as a parliamentary orator, gives a graphic 
and animated account of it. Mr. Webster dis- 
played a cautious regard for facts, a philosophical 
moderation of tone, a fulness of knowledge, and 
an aptness of historical illustration, which asto- 
nished the House. There was no exaggeration 
of statement or argument — no sophistry or un- 
called-for rhetoric. Upon the subject of interna- 
tional law, he was well read; and the science 
which so few country lawyers would have thought 
it necessary to become proficient in, now stood 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 101 

him in great stead. The oldest parliamentarian 
could not have exhibited more propriety and 
decency of manner and language, nor the most 
able logic been more perspicacious and convincing. 
There was a harmony between his thought and 
its expression, that won attention, and compelled 
admiration. His opening was simple, unaffected, 
and without pretension ; gradually gaining the 
confidence of his audience by its transparent sin- 
cerity, and freedom from any attempt at display. 
As the orator continued, and grew animated, his 
words became more fluent, and his language more 
nervous; a crowd of thoughts seemed rushing 
upon him, all eager for utterance. He held them, 
however, under the command of his mind, as 
greyhounds with a leash, till he reached the close 
of his speech, when, warmed by the previous re- 
straint, he poured them all forth, one after ano- 
ther, in glowing language. 

The speech took the House by surprise, not so 
much from its eloquence, as from the vast amount 
of historical knowledge and illustrative ability 
displayed in it. How a person, untrained to 
forensic contests, and unused to public affairs, 
could exhibit so much parliamentary tact, such 
nice appreciation of the difficulties of a difficult 



192 LIFE OF 

question, and such quiet facility in surmounting 
thenij puzzled the mind. The youth and inexpe- 
rience of the speaker had prepared the House for 
no such performance, and astonishment for a time 
suhdued the expression of admiration. 

As in previous cases where Mr. Webster had 
appeared in an arena new to him, he at once took 
his position among the first. It may probably be 
safely said that no otlier member, before or since, 
ever made so profound an impression in an open- 
ing speech. Members left their seats, and stood 
or sat in front of him; and when it was over 
many went up and congratulated the orator. 
Chief-Justice Marshall, wdio was among his hear- 
ers, says : " I did not at that time know Mr. 
Webster, but I was so much struck with the 
speech, that I did not hesitate then to state that 
Mr. Webster was a very able man, and would 
become one of the very first statesman in America ; 
perhaps the very first." 

It was during Mr. Webster's service in the thir- 
teenth Congress, that Mr. Lowndes made of him 
the remark which, by its terseness and strength, 
became everywhere familiar. " The North has 
not his equal, nor the South his superior." He 
did not intrude himself into every debate, but 



D A X 1 E L ^y r: b s t ]•: u . 1 o 

wisely reserved his powers for the subjects which 
he had well considered, and in which he felt tlie 
deepest interest. We have already indicated his 
feelings upon the subject of commerce and an 
increase of the navy. While not an advocate of 
the war, and particularly opposed to the mode in 
which it was conducted, and the policy of the 
government, he never refused his vote to any 
measure for the defence of the country. His 
freedom from the bitterness of party spirit pre- 
vented his partaking in the extravagance which 
was exhibited on both sides by men of greater 
zeal and less prudence. There are no such fiery 
passages in his speeches, no such heated personal 
attacks as mar the pleasure with which we look 
over the earlier speeches of Henry Clay. We 
present some extracts from his speeches on the 
increase of the navy, and the true policy of our 
country, as it was afterwards vindicated by our 
gallant navy. 

" The humble aid," he said, " which it would be 
in my power to render to measures of Government, 
shall be given cheerfully, if Government will pursue 
measures which I can conscientiously support, If 
even now, failing in an honest and sincere attempt 
to procure an honorable peace, it will return to 

17 



194 LIFE OF 

measures of defence and protection, such as reason 
and common sense and the public opinion all call 
for, my vote shall not be withheld from the means. 
Give up your futile projects of invasion. Extin- 
guish the fires which blaze on your inland frontiers. 
Establish perfect safety and defence there by 
adequate force. Let every man that sleeps on 
your soil sleep in security. Stop the blood that 
flows from the veins of unarmed yeomanry and 
w^omen and children. Give to the living time to 
bury and lament their dead, in the quietness of 
private sorrow. Having performed this w^ork of 
beneficence and mercy on your inland borders, 
turn and look with the eye of justice and com- 
passion on your vast population along the coast. 
Unclench the iron grasp of your embargo. Take 
measures for that end before another sun sets upon 
you. With all the war of the enemy upon your 
commerce, if you would cease to make war upon 
it yourselves, you would still have some commerce. 
That commerce would give you some revenue. 
Apply that revenue to the augmentation of your 
navy. That navy in turn will protect your com- 
merce. Let it no longer be said, that not one ship 
of force, built by your hands since the war, yet 
floats upon the ocean. Turn the current of your 



DANIEL W K B S T i: II . 195 

efforts into the channel which pubUc sentiment 
has ah'eady worn broad and deep to receive it. A 
naval force, competent to defend your coasts 
against considerable armaments, to convoy }our 
trade and perhaps raise the blockade of your rivers, 
is not a chimera. It may be realized. If, then, 
the w^ar must continue, go to the ocean. If you 
are seriously contending for maritime rights, go 
to the theatre wdiere alone those rights can be 
defended. Thither every indication of your future 
points you. There the united Welshes and exertions 
of the nation will go with you. Even our party 
divisions, acrimonious as they are, cease at the 
water's edge. They are lost in attachment to the 
national character, on the element where that 
character is made respectable. In protecting naval 
interests by naval means, you well arm yourselves 
with the whole power of national sentiment, and 
may command the whole abundance of the na- 
tional resources. In time you may be able to 
redress injuries in the place wdiere they may be 
offered ; and, if need be, to accompany your own 
flag, throughout the world, with the protection of 
your own cannon." 

While Mr. Webster was in Washington, in the 
winter of 1813-14, his house took hre, and was 



196 LIFE OF 

entirely burned, with nearly all its contents. 
Upon his first bringing his wife to Portsmouth, in 
1808, he took lodgings in the house of a widow 
lady, and at length purchased of her the dwelling 
and furniture. He had just completed the pay- 
ment when this misfortune occurred, and the loss 
was a total one, inasmuch as Mr. Webster was 
uninsured. Thus were swept away the young 
lawyer's savings from tlie nine or ten years of a 
laborious, but not very lucrative, pursuit of his 
profession in New Hampshire. And there Ave re 
some losses which money could not replace — his 
manuscript collections and library. This disaster 
confirmed the purpose which he had commenced 
to entertain, of removing his residence to a wider 
field, where the increase of his profession would 
bear a more satisfactory proportion to his labors. 
But the execution of this intention was for some 
time delayed. The intervals between the Con- 
gressional sessions he devoted to assiduous atten- 
tion to his legal duties. 

In 1814, he was reelected to Congress, the term 
commencincr on the 4:th of March next followin<>\ 
The bitterness of party feeling had now abated. 
The war w^as over; the successes of the gallant 
little United States navj', and the victory of 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 197 

General Jackson at New Orleans, had comforted 
the national pride, bitterly wounded by the dis- 
astrous commencement of the contest. The war 
party were thus spared the taunts of excited 
opponents, which, in the early stages of hostilities, 
were bitter enough ; and, on the other hand, the 
national exultation was sufficiently checked by 
the disastrous result of the Canadian invasion, 
and the destruction of the public buildings at 
Washington. There could not have been better 
consequences than this w^ar produced. There was 
not that unmixed success in its prosecution which 
would have fostered the war-spirit, so fatal to the 
virtue and happiness of any country, and particu- 
ularly unfitted to the genius and character of 
republican institutions. And on the other hand, 
the nation, still in its infancy, had demonstrated 
by its manly struggles that it would not submit 
to the fate which commercial usage had until 
then imposed upon nations of secondary power. 
The history of the world before this time had 
shown that the smaller powers must rank them- 
selves as allies of one or the other party, when 
the greater nations choose to go to war ; or that, 
in default of such active participation, they must 
submit to be the prey of both belligerents ; and 

17::: 



198 LIFE OF 

without the power of successful resistance, be 
used, now by one and now by the other, as a por- 
tion of their material of war. This was the 
manner in which Britain and France undertook 
to deal with America. According to all precedent 
in the history of the world, they considered the 
United States only as a means of mutual annoy- 
ance, without tlie slightest regard to the interest, 
honor, or desires of the the Americans in the 
matter. It was only a few men of leading minds 
in the United States, like Yfebster and some of 
his compeers, who could discern the true question 
at stake. The others, and the newspaper poli- 
ticians and small caucus statesmen especially, 
mutually accused, and in too many cases, bitterly 
reviled each other as partisans of England or of 
France. They discerned no other course which 
the nation could take, than to become the adherent 
of one side or the other. Mr. Webster, as early 
as 1800, as the reader may perceive by referring 
to his Hanover oration, repudiated the secondary 
place in which such narrow views would have 
fixed his native land, and scorned the idea that 
this continent must be regarded as a satellite to 
the other. The bitterness of party spirit, which, 
during the war and the years preceding it, seemed 



DANIEL A\EBSTEK. 191J 

to threaten the very existence of the confederacy, 
was among the causes which preserved it. A 
cordial unanimity in enmity to either of the great 
European powers would have made this country 
the vassal of the other. The divisions which 
existed prevented this. England was warred 
a2;ainst — France was not fraternised with. The 
dominant party in the nation produced the one 
course — the sturdy and talented opposition party 
guarded against the other. 

With the restoration of peace in Europe, party 
spirit subsided in America. In the Fourteenth 
Congress, men met to discuss questio]is which 
were not, at that time, subjects of such sectional 
feeling as they have since become. The leading 
measures which were brought forward, were a 
national bank, internal improvement, and a pro- 
tective tariff. The Bank was a Pennsylvania 
measure ; the others were the favorite policy of 
Southern members, who have since so zealously 
arrayed themselves in opposition. In relation to 
the subject of a National Bank, it is to be noted 
that when it was proposed, previous to Mr. We]> 
ster's election to Congress, to re-charter the hrst 
United States Bank, all the Republicans voted 
against it, and all the Federalists, with whom Mr. 



200 LIFE OF 

Webster acted, voted in its favor. When the 
subject came up again, upon the question of the 
creation of a new bank, the Repubhcans were in 
favor of the meas.ure, and the Federahsts, in- 
cluding Mr. Webster, voted against it. His 
cardinal objection may be said to be based on 
these facts — or on the cause which produced these 
facts — the participation of the Government in the 
management of the bank. Although he failed in 
procuring an amendment divorcing Bank and 
State, there were others, of great value, which he 
introduced and carried. He also brought forward 
a resolution, which was passed, and tended at once f 
to raise the reputation of the Bank, and the char- 
acter of the currency, and to put the finances of 
the United States on a proper specie basis. It 
required all debts due to the United States to be 
paid in gold or silver, in treasury-notes, in the 
notes of the Bank of the United States, or in the 
paper of some other specie-paying institution. 

In regard to the tariff, Mr. Webster was found 
among the opposers of the principle of protection. 
This principle was established, as we have already 
remarked, by Southern influence ; and prominent 
among its supporters was the great Southern 
statesman, Mr. Calhoun, whose enmity to the 



DANIEL WELSTEIi. 201 

child of his own nursing was afterward so intense, 
as to lead to the attempt at nulhiication. 

To deny the expediency and wisdom of a mea- 
sure, is not to deny its constitutionality. To deny 
the benefits of a contemplated course of policy, is 
not to deny the power of the Government to take 
that course. Mr. Webster was undecided as to 
the power of Government to lay protective duties, 
but quite decided against the expediency of im- 
posing a protective tariff. The interests he 
represented would be injuriously affected by it. 
He stated the case hypothetically thus : If the 
right of laying duties for protection were derived 
from the revenue power, it was of necessity inci- 
dental; and, on that assumption, as the incident 
cannot go beyond that to which it is incidental, 
duties avowedly for protection, and not having 
any reference to revenue, could not be constitu- 
tionall}^ laid. The practice of the Government 
settled the constitutional question. The passage 
of laws for the protection of manufactures diverted 
a large amount of the capital of the country into 
the channel of manufactures ; and Mr. Webster 
thereafter supported the plan of a moderate degree 
of protection as the settled policy of the country. 
It is a settled polk- u wbicli any industrious peopk) 






02 LIFE OF 



need. Enterprise can shape itself to tlie fixed 
measures of any wise government ; but no enter- 
prise, and no industry, can thrive inider frequent 
vital changes. 

In April, 181G, at the age of seventy-six, died 
Daniel Webster's mother. She had prophesied in 
his infancy his future distinction ; and she lived 
to see her words verified. It is asserted by those 
who knew her, that Mr. Webster's extraordinary 
genius resembled his mother's, who was a woman 
of far more than ordinary intellect. She was a 
woman of the warmest affections, and lived for 
her husband and children. Kemarkable for her 
piety, and all that renders the character of woman 
estimable, she was respected by all who knew 
her, and venerated by her children. Among the 
choice specimens of art wdiich adorned the library 
of Daniel Webster at Marshfield, the object which 
oftenest caught the statesman's eye in his retire- 
ment, was a small profile, cut in black, as was the 
custom many years ago ; under it are the words, 
in the son's handwriting, " My Excellent Mother. 
D. W." 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 203 



CHAPTER X. 

Mr. Webster's removal to Boston— Ills entrance upon Professional 
life in that Metropolis — His manner at the Bar — Personal 
Characteristics — Death of his child — The Dartmouth Colloo^e 
Case — Mr. Webster as a Constitutional Lawyer — The United 
States Supreme Court — Dartmouth and the Indians — The Nan- 
tucket Friend — Summary of his Professional career. 

In 181 6 J Mr. Webster removed from Portsmouth 
to Boston. He had frequently appeared as counsel 
in the courts of Massachusetts, and he had 
become, both by his Congressional and legal career, 
well-known to the citizens of the New England 
metropolis. Its leading merchants knew and were 
ready to employ him. A pleasant joke of Mr. 
Webster's, which, among all the anecdotes and 
reminiscences his death has called up, we have 
never seen in print, had reference to his leaving 
New Hampshire. On some complimentary occa- 
sion, when, as was much more the custom 
formerly than at present, everything and every- 
body was the subject of a "toast" or a "senti- 



20-i LIFE OF 

ment," Mr. Webster was called out as a native of 
the Granite State. He gave in reply, "New 
Hampshire : — A very good State to go from !" 

Colonel Samuel L. Knapp, who, some eighteen 
or twenty years ago, was celebrated in Boston for 
his biographical notes of the living, and his obitu- 
ary notices of the dead, speaks in the following 
terms of Mr. Webster's professional commence- 
ment in Boston. The fervor of Colonel Knapp's 
style of praise was not always so well borne out 
by the subject as in the present case ; and the 
high color of his painting would sometimes have 
led the reader to suspect his sincerity, if he had 
not been personally known as one of the kindest 
and most amiable of men. 

" Boston was then the residence of some of the 
first lawyers of the nation ; such men, for instance, 
as Dexter, Prescott, Otis, Sullivan, Shaw, Gorham, 
and Hubbard, and there seemed to be little room 
for another in the upper class of the legal 
fraternity ; but Mr. Webster seemed to walk into 
this distinguished company like one who had a 
right ; and though many opened wide their eyes, 
none dared to question his right to be there. In 
a very few months his name appeared as senior 
counsel in many important causes ; and he 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 205 

deported himself like one Avho was simply enjoy- 
ing his birthright. His practice was not con- 
fined to the county of Suffolk, but extended to 
the neighboring counties, and to the interior of 
the State. His powers as an advocate and a 
lawyer were at once conceded, though some 
found fault with his manners at the Bar as a little 
too severe and sharp; this, however, was soon 
forgotten in the admiration which everywhere 
followed him. The people were always with liim, 
and few had the hardihood to declare themselves 
his rivals. 

" As were his manners at the Bar at this time, 
so were they through his life, Avhenever he 
appeared in a deliberative assembly. He began 
to state his points in a low voice, and in a slow, 
cool, cautious, and deliberative manner. If the 
case was of importance, he went on, hammering 
out, link by link, his chain of argument, with 
ponderous blows, leisurely inflicted; and while 
thus at labor, you rather saw the sinews of the 
arm than the skill of the artist. It was in reply, 
however, that he came out in the majesty of 
intellectual grandeur, and poured forth the opu- 
lence of his mind ; it was when the arrows of the 
enemy had hit him, that he was all might and 

18 



20G LIFE OF 

soul, and shoAvered his words of weight and fire. 
His st3'le of oratory was founded on no model, but 
was entirely his own. He dealt not with the 
fantastic and poetical, but with the matter-of-fact 
every-day world, and the multifarious affairs of 
his fellow-men, extricating them from difficulties, 
and teaching them how to become happy. He 
never strove to dazzle, astonish, or confuse, but 
went on to convince and conquer, by great but 
legitimate means." 

The above extracts may be said to embodj' the 
popular estimation of Daniel Webster. The 
writer of this work well remembers the man, as 
he often met him in the streets of Boston — not 
one of those popular favorites whom you address 
on the slightest pretext, sure of a courteous reply, 
but a giant, the safe course with whom was to let 
him alone' — a being not to be trifled with, but 
wondered at. One of his eulogists has well drawn 
his peculiarities of personal character. " He was 
a man more known and admired than understood. 
His great qualities were conspicuous from afar — 
but that part of his nature which he shared with 
other men, was apprehended by comparatively 
few. His manners did not always do him justice. 
For many years of his life, great burdens rested 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 207 

upon liim ; and at times his cares and thoughts 
settled down darkly upon his spirit, and he was 
then a man of awful presence. He required to 
be loved, before he could be known. He, indeed, 
grappled his friends to him with hooks of steel ; 
but he did not always conciliate those who were 
not his friends. He had a lofty spirit, which 
could not stoop or dissemble. He could neither 
affect what he did not feel, nor desire to conceal 
what he did. His wishes clung with tenacious 
hold to everytliing they grasped ; and from those 
who stood, or seemed to stand, in his way, his 
countenance was averted. Some, who were not 
unwilling to become his friends, were changed by 
his manners into foes. He was social in his 
nature, but not facile. He was seen to the best 
advantage among a few old and tried friends, 
especially in his old home. Then his spirits rose, 
his countenance expanded, and he looked and 
moved like a schoolboy on a holida}^" 

On the year of his removal to Boston, following 
close upon the death of his mother, came the 
death of his first-born child, at that time his only 
dauditer. His domestic affections were strong, 
and he felt the affliction keenly, remaining at 
home and watching through her illness, uutil 



208 LIFE OF 

death relieved the little sufferer. He was thus 
detained from his place in Washington for two 
months of the session of 1816-17. 

In 1818, Mr. Webster's first great constitutional 
case was argued. In 1816, the legislature of New 
Hampshire remodelled the charter of Dartmouth 
College. The institution was created previous to 
the Revolution, by a royal grant. The legislature 
changed its name to Dartmouth University, en- 
larged the number of trustees, and remodelled the 
institution, against the protest of the old trustees. 
The newly-created University took possession of 
the corporate property, and assumed the direction 
of the institution. The old board, though nomi- 
nated as trustees of the University, declined to 
act, and brought an action to recover the college 
property. The case was decided in the Supreme 
Court of New Hampshire in favor of the validity 
of the acts of the Legislature, and against the 
plaintiffs; Messrs. Mason, Smith, and Webster 
appearing for the plaintiffs, and the Attorney- 
General of the State, and Mr. J. Bartlett, for the 
defendants. Thence the case was carried, by writ 
of error, to the Supreme Court of the United 
States; where, on the 10th of March, 1818, it 
came up for argument before a full bench. Mr. 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 209 

Hopkinson (afterward Judge) and Mr. Webster 
appeared for the plaintiffs; and Mr. J. Holmes, 
of Maine, and Attorney-General Wirt, for the 
defendants. 

Mr. Webster, as junior counsel, opened the case, 
taking the broad ground that the acts in question 
were not only against common law, common right, 
and the Constitution of New Hampshire, but 
against the Constitution of the United States, 
which forbids the passage of laws by individual 
States, violating the obligation of contracts. We 
have not space to follow the legal argument by 
which these points were established, and refer 
those who wish it to the report of Mr. Webster's 
speech in his published works. The comprehen- 
sive view given by Mr. Hilliard of Mr. Webster's 
services as a constitutional lawyer, dating from 
this case, is more to our pnrpose than an abstract 
of Mr. Webster's argument would be. 

" Previous to the Dartmouth College case, in 
1818, not many important constitutional cases had 
come before the Supreme Court of the United 
States ; and since that time, the great lawyer, who 
then broke upon them with so astonishing a blaze 
of learning and logic, has excited a communica- 
ting influence in shaping that system of constitu- 

18* 



210 LIFE OF 

tional law — almost a supplementary constitution 
— which has contributed so much to our happi- 
ness and prosperity. Great as is our debt of 
gratitude to such Judges as Marshall and Story, 
it is hardly less great to such a lawyer as Mr. 
Webster. None would have been more ready 
than these eminent magistrates to acknowledge 
the assistance they had derived from his masterly 
acquirements. 

" In the discussion of constitutional questions, 
the mind of this great man found a most conge- 
nial employment. Here books, cases, and prece 
dents are comparatively of little value. We must 
ascend to first principles, and be guarded by the 
light of pure reason. Not only is a chain of 
logical deduction to be fashioned, but its links 
must first be forged. Geometry itself hardly leads 
the mind into a region of more abstract and essen- 
tial truth. In these calm heights of speculation 
and analysis, the genius of Mr. Webster moved 
with natural and majestic sweep. Breaking away 
from precedents and details, and soaring above 
the flight of eloquence, it saw the forms of truth 
in the colorless light and tranquil air of reason. 
When we dream of inteUigences higher than man, 
we imao-ine their faculties exercised in serene 



DANIEL AVEBSTEK. 211 

inquisitions like these — not spurred by amLition 
— not kindled by passion — roused by no motive but 
the love of truth, and seekini*: no reward but the 
possession of it. 

"The respect which has been paid to the 
decisions of the Supreme Court of the United 
States, is one of the signs of hope for the future, 
which are not to be overlooked in our desponding 
moods. The visitor in Washington sees a few 
grave men, in an unpretending room, surrounded 
by none of the symbols of command. Some one 
of them, in a quiet voice, reads an opinion, in 
wdiich the conflicting rights of sovereign States 
are weighed and adjusted; and questions, such as 
have generally led to exhausting wars, are settled 
by the light of reason and justice. This judg- 
ment goes forth, backed by no armed force, but 
commanded by the moral and intellectual author- 
ity of the tribunal which pronounces it. It falls 
upon the waves of controversy with reconciling 
and subduing power ; and haughty sovereignties, 
as at the voice of some superior intelligence, put 
off the mood of conflict and defiance, and yield a 
graceful obedience to the calm decrees of central 
justice. There is more cause for national pride 
in the deference paid to \\\q decisions of this 



212 LIFE OF 

august tribunal, than in all our material triumphs ; 
and so long as our people are thus loyal to reason 
and submissive to law, it is a Aveakuess to despair. 
" Mr. Webster's argument in the Dartmouth 
College case forms an important era in his 
life. His argument in that case stands out 
among his other arguments, and his speech in 
reply to Mr. Hayne among his other speeches. 
No better argument has been spoken in the 
English tongue, in the memory of any living 
man, nor is the child that is born to-day likely to 
live to hear a better. Its learning is ample, but 
not ostentatious ; its logic irresistible ; its elo- 
quence vigorous and lofty. I have often heard 
my revered and beloved friend. Judge Stor\^, speak 
with great animation of the effect he then pro- 
duced upon the Court. ' For the first hour,' said 
he, ^we listened to him with perfect astonish- 
ment ; for the second hour with perfect delight ; 
for the third hour with perfect conviction.' It is 
not too much to say that he entered the Court on 
that day a comparatively unknown name, and 
left it with no rival but Pinckney. All the words 
he spoke on that occasion have not been recorded. 
"When he had exhausted the resources of learn- 
ing and logic, his mind passed naturally and 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 21 



o 



simply into a striiin of feeling not common to the 
place. Old recollections and early associations 
came over him, and the vision of his yonth rose 
up. The genius of the institution where he was 
nurtured seemed standing by his side in weeds of 
mourning, with a countenance of sorrow. With 
suffused eyes and faltering voice, he broke into an 
unpremeditated strain of emotion, so strong and 
so deep, that all who heard him were borne along 
with it. Heart answered to heart as he spoke ; and 
when he had ceased, the silence and tears of the 
impassive bench, as well as the excited audience, 
w^ere a tribute to the truth and power of the feel- 
ing by which he had been inspired." 

Another writer describes a scene so unusual 
from the testimony of witnesses. " The logic and 
the law w^ere rendered irresistible. But as he 
advanced his heart warmed to the subject and to 
the occasion. Thoughts and feelings that had 
grown old with his best affections rose unl)idden 
to his lips. He remembered that the institution 
he was defending was the one where his own 
youth had been nurtured ; and the moral tender- 
ness and beauty this gave to the grandeur of his 
thoughts, the sort of religious sensibility it im- 
parted to his urgent appeals and demands for the 



214 LIFE OF 

stern fulfilment of what law and justice required, 
w^rought up the whole audience to an extraordi- 
nary pitch of excitement. Many betrayed strong 
agitation — many were dissolved in tears. Promi- 
nent among them w^as that eminent lawyer and 
statesman, Kobert Goodloe Harper, who came to 
him when he resumed his seat, evincing emotions 
of the highest gratification. When he ceased to 
speak, there w^as a perceptible interval before any 
one ventured to break the silence ; and wdien that 
vast crowd separated, not one person of the whole 
number doubted that the man wdio had that day 
so moved, astonished, and controlled them, had 
vindicated for himself a place at the side of the 
first jurists of the country. The opinion of the 
Court w^as given at the term for 1819, reversing 
the decision of the New^ Hampshire Courts ; that 
State readily acquiesced, and Dartmouth College 
resumed its original form and its prosperity." 

There is an amusing anecdote wdiich Mr. Web- 
ster was accustomed to relate respecting the 
Dartmouth College case. While he was engaged 
in it, he told President Wheelock that, as tJie 
original charter was granted, and the endowment 
made by Lord Dartmouth, expressly for the pur- 
pose of civihzing and instructing the Indians, a 



DAN IK I. WEBSTKK. 215 

question might arise on this point : as no Indian 
had been attached to the school for a long period, 
it would be well for the President to go into Can- 
ada, and fetch some of the aborigines within the 
walls of the College, so that a jury could not lind 
that the charter had been abrogated by that 
omission. Accordingly, the President went, and 
found three choice specimens, brought them to 
the brink of the river, and, after some delay, pro- 
cured a boat to ferry them across. The young 
Indians, not precisely understanding the object of 
so much kindness on the part of the President, 
espied the walls of the College on the bank, which 
excited their suspicion and their wonder whether, 
if once inside those walls, it might be possible to 
make their exit. The young Indian at the bow 
of the boat cast a siaiiificant "lance on his asso- 
ciates, gave the war-whoop, and quick as thought 
they plunged into the middle of the river, and 
swam for the shore. The President halloed, en- 
treated, and tried to explain all, but the Indians 
kept straight on their course to the shore, and 
made with all speed for the woods. It was the last 
President Wheelock ever saw or heard of them — 
so Mr. Webster had to go on with the case, minus 
the Indians. 



216 LIFE OF 

The reader who desires to follow Mr. Webster 
through his labors as a great Constitutional lawyer, 
"the Expounder of the Constitution/' as he has 
well been termed, must look to larger works than 
so brief a volume as this. In nearly all the lead- 
ing cases before the Supreme Court since 1818 he 
was heard or consulted. In cases between indi- 
viduals, and between States ; in questions where 
the rights of citizens were affected by the law^s of 
States, and in suits in which the laws of States 
and of the United States appeared to come in 
conflict, he has borne an important part in defin- 
ing the precise limits of the conflicting powers, 
and the weight of varying interests. His practice 
before the State Courts has also been very exten- 
sive. He was appealed to wherever the interests 
at stake would w^arrant the large expense which 
his talents commanded. From the close of his 
second term in Congress, in 1817, until he resumed 
his seat in the National Legislature, in 1823, he 
devoted himself assiduously to his profession. 
CHents crowded upon him, and his income from 
his professional practice was greater than any 
lawyer who had preceded him. His reputation 
increased wdth every year, and a most brilliant 
prospect in every respect opened before him. 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 217 

Daring these six years he was engaged very hi tie 
in the piihhc service. He performed the merely 
nominal duty of an elector, being one of the col- 
lege which elected Mr. Monroe to his second 
Presidential term ; and he was also a member of 
the Convention which revised the Constitution of 
Massachusetts, in 1821. In that Convention he 
performed an important part, and gave his adopted 
State the advantage of his close study upon the 
principles of government. 

There is an anecdote connected w^ith Mr. Web- 
ster's practice in Boston, which should not be lost. 
A member of the Society of Friends, from Nan- 
tucket, applied to Mr. Webster to manage a suit 
then pending in court on that island. He demurred 
to Mr. Webster's charge — one thousand dollars — 
but at length promised that sum, provided Mr. 
Webster would consent to attend to any other 
little matters he might present during the session 
of the Court. With this understanding Mr. Web- 
ster was present when the case was called up. It 
was heard and decided in his client's favor. An- 
other was taken up — another, and still another, 
and all assigned to Mr. Webster. Finding he was 
doing all the business, Mr. Webster became impa- 
tient and demanded an explanation. His client, 

lU 



218 LIFE OF 

having noAV got through, said : '' I hired thee, 
Daniel, to attend to all the business of the Court. 
Thee has done it handsomely. Here's thy mo- 
ney ! " It is said that the client, through the 
wages of his distinguished journeyman, recovered 
his thousand dollars, and made a few hundreds 
over. We cannot better conclude our account of 
Mr. Webster's professional life, than by adopting 
the eloquent language of Mr. Hilliard. 

" He was, from the beginning, more or less occu- 
pied with public affairs, and he continued to the 
last to be a practising lawyer; but, as regards 
these two spheres of action, his life may be divided 
into two distinct portions. From his twenty-third 
to his forty-first year, the practice of the law was 
his primary occupation and interest, but from the 
latter period to his death, it was secondary to his 
labors as a legislator and statesman. Of his emi- 
nence in the law — meaning the law as adminis- 
tered in the ordinary tribunals of the country, 
without reference, for the present, to Constitutional 
questions — there is but one opinion among com- 
petent judges. Some may have excelled him in 
a single faculty or accomplishment; but in the 
combination of qualities which the law requires, 
no man of his time was, on the whole, equal to him. 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 219 

He was a safe counsellor and a powerful advo- 
cate; thorough in the preparation of causes and 
judicious in the management of them ; quick, far- 
seeing, cautious and bold. His addresses to the 
jury were simple, manly, and direct; presenting 
the strong points of the case in his strong way, 
appealing to the reason and the conscience, and 
not to passions and prejudices; and never weak- 
ened by over-statement. He laid his oAvn mind 
fairly along-side tiiat of the jury, and won their 
confidence by his sincere Avay of dealing with 
them. He had the grace to cease speaking when 
he had come to an end. 

" His most conspicuous power was his clearness 
of statement. He threw upon every subject a 
light like that of the sun at noonday. His mind, 
by an unerring instinct, separated the important 
from the unimportant facts in a complicated case, 
and so presented the former that he was really 
making a powerful and persuasive argument, when 
he seemed to be only telling a plain story in a 
plain way. The transparency of the stream veiled 
its depth, and its depth concealed its rapid liow. His 
legal learning was accurate and perfectly at com- 
mand, and he had made himself master of some 
difficult branches of law, such as special pleading 



220 LIFE OF 

and the law of real property ; but the memory of 
some of his contemporaries was more richly stored 
with cases. From his remarkable powers of 
generalization, his elementary reading had filled 
his mind with principles, and he examined the 
questions that arose by the light of these princi- 
ples, and then sought in the books for cases to 
confirm the views which he had reached by reflec- 
tion. He never resorted to stratagems and 
surprises, nor did he let his zeal for his client run 
away with his self-respect. His judgment was so 
clear, and his moral sense so strong, that he never 
could help discriminating between a good cause 
and a bad one ; nor betraying to a close observer 
when he was arguing against his convictions. His 
manner was admirable, especially for its repose, an 
effective quality in an advocate, from the con- 
sciousness of strength wdiich it implies. The uni- 
form respect with which he treated the bench 
should not be omitted, in summing up his merits 
as a lawyer. 

" The exclusive practice of the law is not held 
to be the best preparation for pul:)lic life. Not 
only does it invigorate without expanding — not 
only does it narrow at the same time that it 
sharpens — but the custom of addressing juries 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 221 

begets a habit of over-statement, which is a great 
defect in a pubhc speaker ; and the mind that is 
constantly occupied in looking at one side of a 
disputed question, is apt to forget that it has two. 
Great minds triumph over these influences, but it 
is because they never fail, sooner or later, to over- 
leap the formal barriers of the law. Had Mr. 
Webster been born in England and educated to 
the Bar, his powers could never have been con- 
fined to Westminster Hall. He would have been 
taken up and borne into Parliament by an irresis- 
tible tide of public opinion. Born where he was, 
it w^ould have been the greatest of misfortunes if 
he had narrowed his mind, and given up to his 
clients the genius that was meant for the whole 
country and all time. Admirably as he put a 
case to the jury, or argued it to the court, it was 
imj)ossible not to feel that in many instances an 
inferior person would have done it nearly or quite 
as well ; and sometimes the disproportion between 
the man and the work w^as so great, that it 
reminded one of the task given to Michael 
Angelo, to make a statue of snow. 

" His advancing reputation, however, soon led 
him into a class of cases, the peculiar growth of 
the institutions of his country, and adnural)ly 



222 LIFE OF 

fitted to train a lawyer for public life, because, 
though legal in their form, they involve great 
questions of politics and government. The system 
under which we live is, in many respects, without 
a precedent. Singularly complicated in its arrange- 
ments, embracing a general government of limited 
and delegated powers, organised by an interfusion 
of separate sovereignties, all with written consti- 
tutions to be interpreted and reconciled, the im- 
perfection of human language and the strength 
of human passion leaving a wide margin for war- 
ring opinions, it is obvious to any person of political 
experience, that many grave questions, both of 
construction and conflicting jurisdiction, must 
arise, requiring wisdom and authority for their 
adjustment. Especially must this be the case in 
a country like ours, of such great extent, with 
such immense national resources, and inhabited 
by so enterprising and energetic a people. It was 
a fortunate, may we not say a jDrovidential circum- 
stance, that the growth of the country begun to 
devolve upon the Supreme Court of the United 
States the consideration of this class of questions, 
just at the time when Mr. Webster, in his ripe 
manhood, was able to give them the benefit of his 
extraordinary powers of argument and analysis." 



DANIEL WEBSTKR. 223 



CHAPTER XI. 

The Pilgrim Address at Plymouth — A Prophecy — Its fulfihncnt — 
Foundation of Bunker-IIill Monument — Completion of the Monu- 
ment — Eulogy on Adams and JefiFerson — Other Eulogies — The 
AVashington Address, in 1832 — Address at the Capitol enlarge- 
ment — The Trial of the Knapps for the Murder of Captain 
Joseph White — Power of Conscience. ' 

Amoxg the public performances which have 
given Mr. Webster his American reputation, must 
be mentioned, as first in order, his addresses upon 
occasions of great national interest. Here were 
themes into which no party or sectional feeling 
entered, and all men of all parties could sympa- 
thize with the orator. The first in order of time 
was the oration at Plymouth, on the bi-centennial 
jmniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims at 
Plymouth, on the 20th of December, 1820. On 
several subsequent occasions, Mr. Webster spoke 
upon the same anniversary, but his later ad- 
dresses were not so carefully prepared, and were 
not delivered to a miscellaneous audience, but to 



224 LIFE OF 

the members and guests of New England Societies, 
in cities out of New England. The address de- 
livered at Plymouth has a great historical value, 
and in its analysis of the character and motives 
of the Pilgrim Fathers shows a patriotic appre- 
ciation of the subject worthy of one of the most 
distinguished sons of New England. Mr. Webster's 
early. education, as we have seen, prepared him 
for admiration of the men who founded the New 
England States. His description of the condition 
of the wanderers, their sufferings on the deep, and 
on the bleak and inhospitable shores of New 
England, is graphic and pathetic. The tracing 
back of the New England character to the causes 
which formed it, shows a rare talent at discrimi- 
nation. Tliouglit is the grand element of this 
performance. It is not mere rhapsody, nor does 
it deal in extravagant praise. Calm and philo- 
sophical in its deductions, rich in facts, and 
profound in wisdom, it has scarce a burst of 
enthusiasm, except in the predictions of the 
future. The following passage contains a re- 
markable prophecy — remarkable when delivered, 
thirty years ago. 

" Two thousand miles westward from the rock 
where their fathers landed, may now be found 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 225 

the sons of the Pilgrims, cultivating smiling fields, 
rearing towns and villages, and cherisliing, we 
trust, the patrimonial blessings of wise institutions 
of liberty and religion. The world has seen 
nothing like this. Regions large enough to be 
empires, and which, half a century ago, were 
known only as remote and unexplored wildernesses, 
are now teeming with population, and prosperous 
in all the great concerns of life ; in good govern- 
ments, the means of subsistence, and social happi- 
ness. It may be safely asserted, that there are 
now more than a million of people, descendants 
of New England ancestry, living, free and happy, 
in regions which, scarce sixty years ago, were 
tracts of unpenetrated forest. Nor do rivers, or 
mountains, or seas, resist the progress of industr}^ 
and enterprise. Ere long, the sons of the Pilgrims 
will be on the shores of the Pacific. The imagi- 
nation hardly keeps pace with the progress of 
population, improvement and civilization." 

In 1850, at the festival of the New England 
Society of New York, Mr. Webster, being a guest, 
had the gratification to refer to the fulfdment of a 
prophecy, which seemed at the time of its utter- 
ance almost a rhapsody. lie said : " We ha\ e 
hardly begun, my brethren, to realize tlie ^ ast ini- 



226 LIFE OF 

portance to human society, and to the history and 
happiness of the world, of the voyage of that Uttle 
vessel, which brought hither the love of civil and 
religious liberty, and the reverence of the Bible, 
for the instruction of the future generations of 
men. We have hardly begun to realize the 
consequences of that voyage. Heretofore the 
extension of our race, following our New England 
ancestry, has crept along the shore. But now it 
has extended itself. It has crossed the continent. 
It has not only transcended the Alleghanies, but 
it has capped the Rocky Mountains. It is now 
upon the shores of the Pacific ; and on the day, 
or, if not on the day, then this day twelvemonth, 
descendants of New England will there celebrate 
the landing. 
" ( A VOICE. ' To-day ; they celebrate it to-day ! ') 
'' God bless them ! Here's to the health and 
success of the California Society of Pilgrims, as- 
sembled on the shores of the Pacific. And it shall 
yet go hard, if the three hundred millions of people 
of China, provided they are intelligent enough to 
understand any thing, shall not one day hear and 
know something of the Rock of Pljanouth, too ! " 
In 1825, on the ITth of June, the anniversary 
of the Battle of Bunker-Hill, the corner-stone of 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 227 

the monument connnemoniting that great event 
was laid. General Lafayette was at that time tlie 
guest of the American people, and united with 
the Grand-Master of the Freemasons, and with 
Mr. Webster, the President of the Monument 
Association, in the ceremony. There were in the 
procession two hundred veterans of the Revolution, 
forty of whom were survivors of the battle. Scarce 
one of those men remains. Twenty-five }'ears ago, 
a place was assigned to such veterans in every 
patriotic procession — now the places which knew 
them know them no more forever. The pageant, 
in the numbers who took part in it, and in the 
enthusiasm which animated all, has never been 
exceeded. It had all the elements of moral gran- 
deur, and forms an epoch in the life of those who 
witnessed it. Mr. Webster was the orator, and we 
need not say that he w^as equal, so far as man 
could be, to such an occasion. Our space permits 
extracts from but few of Mr. Webster's speeches. 
Those from which we have chiefly drawn, are 
among the least known, and valuable to our pur- 
pose, because they were the work of his youth. 
But the Bunker-Hill orations are classics — the 
study of the school-boy and of the ardent youth 
— the fountain from which the calmer patriotism 
of later years draws a renewal of its inspiration. 



228 LIFE OF 

On the ITtli of June, 1843, the completion of 
the monument was celebrated, and the voice of 
the same orator was heard by the assembled thou- 
sands. The work had been completed during the 
previous year, having been seventeen years in 
buildino;. The Massachusetts Charitable Median- 
ics Association had finished the work begun by 
the original association, by promoting a new sub- 
scription, and the ladies of Boston and vicinity 
came also to the enterprise, with patriotic zeal. 
In the time which had elapsed since the laying 
of the corner-stone, the population of Boston and 
Charlestown had doubled, and that of the whole 
country had largely increased. Improved travel- 
ling facilities brought their thousands. It is esti- 
mated that one hundred thousand persons were 
collected, of whom nearly half were within the 
sound of the speaker's voice. In all this multitude 
there were but about one hundred of the survivors 
of the revolutionary army. Sixty-eight years had 
elapsed since the day of the battle in commemorar 
tion of w^hich the monument was built. An extract 
from Mr. Webster's oration happily illustrates the 
feeling of that multitude, and the inspiration of 
the speaker. 

" The Bunker-Hill Monument is finished. Here 




ORATION ON BUNKER HILL. 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 229 

it stands. Fortunate in the high natural eminence 
on which it is pLaced, higher, infinitely higher in 
its objects and purpose, it rises over the land and 
over the sea ; and visible, at their homes, to three 
hundred thousand of the people of Massachusetts, 
it stands a memorial of the last, and a monitor to 
the present, and all succeeding generations. I 
have spoken of the loftiness of its purpose. If it 
had been without any other design than the crea- 
tion of a work of art, the granite of which it is 
composed w^ould have slept in its native bed. It 
has a purpose, and that purpose gives it its charac- 
ter. That purpose enrobes it with dignity and 
moral grandeur. That well-known purpose it is 
w^iich causes us to look up to it with feelings of 
awe. It is itself the orator of this occasion. It is 
not from my lips, it could not be from any human 
lips, that that strain of eloquence is this day to 
flow, most competent to move and to excite the 
vast multitudes around me. That powerful 
speaker stands motionless before us ! " 

Here Mr. AVebster paused, and pointed in silent 
admiration to the lofty pile. The assembled tliou- 
sands burst into long and loud applause. Wheii 
the echoes of that mighty shout died away, the 
orator proceeded : " It is a plain shaft. It bears 

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230 LIFE OF 

no inscription, fronting to the rising sun, from 
which the future antiquary shall wipe the dust. 
Nor does the rising sun cause tones of music to 
issue from its summit. But at the rising of the sun, 
and the setting of the sun ; in the blaze of noonday, 
and beneath the milder effulgence of lunar light; 
it looks, it speaks, it acts to the full comprehension 
of every American mind, and the awakening of 
glowing enthusiasm in every American heart. Its 
silent but awful utterance, its deep pathos, as it 
brings to our contemplation the 17th of June, 
1775, and the consequences which have resulted 
to us, to our country, and to the world, from the 
events of that day, and which we know must 
continue to rain influence upon the destinies of 
manhood, till the end of tune ; the elevation with 
which it raises us high above the ordinary feelings 
of life, surpass all that the study of the closet, or 
even the usurpation of genius, can produce. To- 
day it speaks to us. Its future auditories will be 
successive generations of men, as they rise up 
before it and gather around it. Its speech will be 
of patriotism and courage ; of civil and religious 
liberty ; of free government ; of the moral im- 
provement and elevation of mankind, and of 
the immortal memory of those who, with he- 



DAXIEL AVEBSTEll. 231 

roic devotion, have sacrificed their lives for their 
country." 

If Mr. Webster was endowed with wonderful 
talents, he was favored also with reniarkaljle op- 
portunities for their employment — occasions wliich 
gave full scope for their exercise, and left, for him- 
self and his friends, nothing to desire. Tlic cen- 
tenary celebration of the landing of the Pilgrims ; 
the half-century anniversary of Bunker-IIill ; the 
presence of Lafayette, and the founding of tlie 
monument; these and its completion were full of 
worthy themes for his oratorical powers. Another, 
and in some respects a greater occasion, occurred 
in 182G, when John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, 
both signers of the Declaration of Independence, 
and both ex-Presidents of the United States, died 
within a few hours of each other, upon the National 
Anniversary. On the 2d of August following 
their death, Mr. Webster delivered, in Faneuil 
Hall, a discourse commemorative of their lives 
and services. No similar performance has com- 
manded so wide a circle of readers as this ; and, 
in some respects, it may be regarded as the most 
celebrated of Mr. Webster's speeches. With the 
names of the great dead whose character he eulo- 
gized — and not merely eulogized, but analysed, 



232 LIFE OF 

and drew wisdom and instruction from their ex- 
ample — the name of Webster would descend to 
posterity had he written nothing else. In such 
performances, he was not the mere orator appeal- 
ing to popular enthusiasm, but the historian and 
the philosopher. 

There are other specimens of Mr. Webster's 
addresses on obituary occasions, less studied per- 
haps, but not less eloquent than the Adams and 
Jefferson oration. He was the eulogist of his 
early friends. Mason and Story ; of Calhoun and 
Taylor, and others of his friends and associates in 
a long public life. These addresses, in the Senate 
and at meetings of the bar, have a simplicity and 
dignity which mark them as models. While doing 
justice to the deceased, they abounded in the 
evidences of Mr. Webster's goodness of heart and 
personal kindness, and they yet preserve the rare 
merit of sincerity. They may be taken as impar- 
tial judgments. Nothing is to be deducted from 
them for the usual freedom of such occasions. 

In 1832, Mr. Webster presided in Washington 
City at a commemoration of the birth-day of the 
Father of his country. His speech is well worth 
the study of those who would duly understand 
and appreciate the character of Washington, and 



DxVNIEL WEBSTER. 233 

the value of the Union — a su])ject upon wliich 
Mr. Webster never failed to speak upon all proper 
occasions. As he said of Washington, we may say 
of Webster, " The Union was the great object of 
his thoughts. He regarded the union of these 
States, less as one of our blessings, than as the 
great treasure-house which contained them all. 
Here, in his judgment, was the great magazine of 
all our means of prosperity ; here, as he thought, 
and as every true American still thinks, are de- 
posited all our animating prospects — all our solid 
hopes for future greatness." 

The last of Mr. Webster's patriotic or national 
addresses was delivered on the Fourth of Jul\', 
1851, at the laying of the corner-stone of the 
addition to the Capitol of the United States. In 
this, the paramount idea is the value of the Union, 
and our duty, as citizens, in perpetuating it. He 
appeals in eloquent terms to those who had spoken 
of disunion, and defines his idea of the cause of 
such a diseased state of public feeling. '* For my 
part," he says, " I confess that the real evil ex- 
isting in the case, appears to me to be a certain 
inquietude or uneasiness, growing out of a high 
degree of prosperity and consciousness of wealth 
and power, which sometimes lead men to be ready 

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234 LIFE OF 

for changes, and to push on, unreasonably, to still 
hidier elevation. If this be the truth of the 
matter, her political doctors [secession-men] are 
about right. If the complaint sprung from over- 
wrought prosperity, for that disease, I have no 
doubt that secession would prove a sovereign 
remedy." The orator did not fail, however, before 
he closed, to express in emphatic terms his faith 
in the prosperity of the republic. The facts which 
he advanced relative to its progress and increase 
w^ere peculiarly appropriate to the occasion, and 
the address was, like all Mr. Webster's speeches of 
this nature, a performance of more than temporary 
or passing interest. 

Of his many political and popular addresses, 
called forth from time to time by the urgency of 
public affairs, we cannot find place to speak. 
They belong to a more extended work than ours, 
and can, indeed, be judged of only by perusal. 
But there was one criminal trial in which he was 
engaged, in aid of the public prosecution, which 
will be remembered, and referred to, as long as the 
records of our criminal jurisprudence are preserved. 
Captain Joseph White, a highly respectable citizen 
of Salem, Massachusetts, was found murdered in 
his bed^ on the morning of the 7tli of April, 1830, 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 235 

A strong senscation was excited tliroiigliout the 
community. Circumstances led to the arrest of 
Robert Crowninshield, George Crowninshiekl, Jo- 
seph J. Knapp, and John F. Knapp. Robert 
Crowninshiekl, by whom the deed was done, com- 
mitted suicide in prison. George Crowninshield 
proved an alibi, and was discharged. The two 
Knapps were convicted as accessories, and exe- 
cuted. The motive to the murder was the de- 
struction of a will, and the securing, by the death 
of Captain White, that no other should ])e made. 
In case of his death without a will, the estate 
would, it was supposed by Joseph J. Knapp, be 
divided between his mother-in-law, as the repre- 
sentative of one of Mr. White's sisters, and the 
children of a deceased brother, Mrs. Beckford 
receiving one-half. But the last will was found, 
the assassin having taken away the wrong docu- 
ment; and thus the horrid murder, even if the 
criminals had remained undetected, would have 
failed of its covetous purpose. 

Mr. Webster investigated every circumstance. 
He shut himself up in his room, and revolved and 
re-examined every feature of the case. He de- 
scribed to the jury with fearful minuteness every 
step of the assassin in his secret nuirdcr, as the 



236 LIFE OF 

whole had been developed by circumstantial evi- 
dence, and the confession of one of the parties. 
He painted the horror of the murderer after the 
deed was done — his conscience impelling him to 
confess, his fears restraining him. " There is no 
refuge," he said, " from suicide but confession, and 
suicide is confession." The hired assassin's con- 
nexion with his accomplices was established, and 
his confession by suicide sealed their doom. With- 
out Mr. Webster's aid, justice would have been 
defeated of her due. The great advocate under- 
took the case with much unwillingness, but hav- 
ing undertaken the assistance of the prosecuting 
attorney, he brought all his powers to bear upon 
the case ; and, while he procured the conviction 
of the desperate murderers, he gave to the world 
the most sublime descri23tion of " the worm that 
never dies " that modern literature can furnish. 




FANEUIL HALL. 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 2e37 



CHAPTER XII. 

Mr. Webster's reluctance to re-enter Congress — His Election 
in 1822 and 1824 — Present of an Annuity — Speech upon the 
Greek Question — The Panama Mission — Mr. Adams's Adminis- 
tration — Mr. Webster's Labors in Committee — His Election as 
Senator — Death of his Wife — Webster and Ilayne — Death of 
Ezekiel Webster — Nullification — The Bank Question — Funeuil 
Hall Dinner — Visit to England — ]Mr. Webster as Secretary of 
State — Again in the Senate — Mexican War — Death of his Son 
Edward — Again Secretary — Ilulseman — Kossuth. 

We have now readied that point in Mr. We]> 
ster's hfe at which the plan of our work requires 
that we should be less minute in detail and less 
diffuse in comment. Having traced him to tlie 
head of his profession as a lawyer, and sliown the 
full reward which he received for his early appli- 
cation and industry, we may briefly notice liis 
career as a legislator and a statesman. While tliis 
portion of his life is widely known as a part of tlie 
history of his whole country, its proper discussion 
would require volumes. To laraer works, to the 
published collections of Mr. Wcljster s speeches 



238 LIFE OF 

and writings, and to the history of the United 
States since 1824, we must refer the reader who 
would perfect his knowledge of Daniel Webster's 
public services. From his election to Congress, in 
1823, until the close of his life, he w\as almost un- 
interruptedly engaged in the service of his country 
— his WHOLE COUNTRY ; for he had, more than any 
other public man since Washington, a comprehen- 
sive attachment to the Union as a whole. He 
believed that in the preservation of the Union 
alone could the prosperity and glory of the several 
parts be maintained. 

On som^e points of public policy his opinions 
unquestionably were changed and modified by cir- 
cumstances. If they had not been, he would have 
stood alone in the history of men and of parties ; 
for there is no one of whom the same cannot be 
said. His principles remained unchanged — his 
love of country unabated. But in the modes of 
applying those principles, and vindicating his at- 
tachment to his native land and her true happi- 
ness, the growing population, wealth, and power 
of the United States, the uprising of new interests 
and the decline of old, suggested and made neces- 
sary some changes in matters of policy and legis- 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 239 

lation. These we shall not attempt to describe or 
to particularize. 

When Mr. Webster settled in Boston, it was 
with the view of following his profession, and 
reaping the harvest which his early application 
and industry had prepared for him. Success 
almost unexampled attended his efforts. He was 
on the sure path to opulence, when the leading 
men of Boston, of kindred political opinions, ap- 
plied to him for his consent to stand as a candi- 
date to Congress. He was offered first the nomi- 
nation as Representative, and upon his declining 
that, he was tendered an election as Senator ; but 
to both offers he gave a courteous but decided re- 
fusal. Meanwhile, his high reputation was daily 
increasing, and the anxiety of his friends that he 
should represent his adopted State in the Congress 
of the United States also augmented. In 1822, 
his reluctance gave way before repeated persuasion. 
A committee called upon him, and read to him the 
vote of the convention by which he liad been nomi- 
nated, with the letter urging his acceptance ; and, 
informing him that they had been instructed to 
bring back no answer, retired; leaving him, in a 
manner, a compulsory candidate. iMr. AVe])ster's 
reluctance was not assumed, but real. lb' was too 



240 LIFE OF 

ilimiliar with the examples of the great statesmen 
who have been impoverished by public service, to 
desire an honour so expensive, and the result more 
than proved his anticipations. He was elected by 
a thousand majority, and at the next election, in 
1824, was re-elected, receiving four thousand and 
ninety out of five thousand votes; a unanimity 
unparalleled. Twenty-four years afterwards, when 
the course of events had shown the personal loss 
at which Mr. Webster exchanged professional for 
political life, the same gentlemen who had de- 
manded of him the sacrifice, in some measure 
repaired it, by placing the income of thirty-seven 
THOUSAND DOLLARS at his disposal. The manner 
in which it was tendered and accepted was credit- 
able to the sense of justice and the delicacy of one 
party, and the frankness and gratitude of the 
other. It was an honourable testimony gracefully 
received and acknowledged ; and although made 
the subject of political reflections and pasquinades, 
had in it nothing which donors or recipient should 
hesitate to acknowledge. 

The most celebrated speeches of Mr. Webster, 
wdiile in the House of Representatives, were upon 
the Greek Revolution and the Panama Mission. Mr. 
Webster, in accordance wdth the warm sympathy 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 241 

for the Greeks expressed by President Monroe, 
moved the provision, by hiw, of the sum necessary 
to defray the expense of the appointment of a 
Commissioner to Greece. The Greeks were at tliat 
time struggUng for their freedom and national ex- 
istence against the tyranny of the Moslem. The 
measure, notwithstanding the support of Webster, 
Clay, and other distinguished statesmen, was not 
at that time carried ; but the discussion awakened 
new interest in the history and fate of Greece ; 
and Mr. Webster's speech stands among his noblest 
efforts. On the subject of the Panama Mission, 
Mr. Webster defended the administration of Mr. 
Adams, who had appointed delegates to confer 
with the Southern Republics. The appointment 
was made in the spirit of Mr. Monroe's declaration, 
that our government w^ould regard any European 
combination to effect political oj^jects on the Con- 
tinent as affecting ourselves, and demanding pre- 
paration to meet it. Mr. Clay was in the Cabinet, 
and on Mr. Webster devolved the arduous duty 
of defending an unpopular administration against 
as zealous and strong an opposition as any Execu- 
tive of the United States has ever been com- 
pelled to act against. The position of header of 
the administration-party in the House unquestion- 

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242 LIFE OF 

ably developed his extraordinary powers ; but pro- 
bably it imposed upon him a portion of the popu- 
lar odium, however unjust in its intensity, which 
the administration of Mr. Adams labored under. 
Mr. Adams came into office under the indignant 
protest of a large party, and it is but latterly that 
justice has been done to his patriotism and his 
motives. He had no powers of conciliation, and 
seemed unable either to attack political friends, or 
to concihate opponents. 

Mr. Webster's sphere as a debater was not the 
only mode in which he rendered service to his 
country during his Congressional career. He was 
a most efficient member of various important com- 
mittees, and the Acts wdiich he digested and pre- 
sented for the action of Congress, while the least 
brilliant, are far from being the least important 
of his legislative services. Among these may be 
noticed the amended Act, '^ To punish certain 
crimes ao\ainst the United States." To this work 
he brought his large and varied experience ; and 
the law, which passed substantially as he reported 
it, forms a complete code of the criminal law of 
the United States as distinct from the several 
States. 

In 1826, Mr. Webster was a third time elected 



DANIEL AV E B S T i: r. . 21 3 

to the House of Representatives; but ])er()re ho 
took his seat, a vacancy occurring in the Senato- 
rial delegation, he was elected by the Legislature 
of Massachusetts to the Senate of the United 
States. While on his way to Washington, in lSl!7, 
accompanied by his wife, that lady was taken ill 
and died. This melancholy event dekayed Mr. 
Webster's ■ arrival in Washington until January, 
1828. During the session, Mr. AVebster made 
strong and praiseworthy exertions in behalf of the 
survivors of the Revolutionary arm}'. This sul> 
ject, and also the rendition of justice to the suf- 
ferers by the spoliations of France upon our com- 
merce prior to 1800, he frequently labored to press 
upon the attention of Congress. 

In 1830, occurred Mr. Webster's great Senatorial 
triumph. The opposition to President Adams had 
taken somewhat the character of political enmity 
to New England. The triumphant popularity of 
General Jackson had fliiled to include New Eng- 
land in its influence. That portion of the Union 
remained true to its opposition, and the dominant 
party were inclined to punish the New-Englanders, 
and to suspect their motives. A very lianii- 
less resolution, introduced by Mr. Foote, Senator 
from Connecticut, furnished tlie main su1>joct-mat- 



244 LIFE OF 

ter for speeches through a whole session. The 
debate was discursive, and took a very wide range. 
Most of the orators of the Senate spoke during 
its continuance. The little matter which kindled 
all this fire was a resolution, based upon the fact 
that the annual demand for land then existing 
was only equal to one-fiftieth part, or less, of the 
land already surveyed and in the market, and pro- 
posing, therefore, the inquiry whether sales could 
not be restricted to the lands already offered, and 
a portion of the land-office machinery be abolished. 
Western men, led by Mr. Benton, denounced this 
as a blow aimed at the Western States, and in- 
tended to check their increase; and the South, 
appealed to by the West, joined against Nevv^ Eng- 
land, holding the whole of that portion of the Con- 
federacy guilty of the evil purpose attributed to 
Mr. Foote. Colonel Hayne, of South Carolina, 
stood forth as the principal cham23ion in the on- 
slaught, and attacked New England w^ith great 
bitterness. Mr. Webster and his friends regarded 
the attack as intended to reflect upon him, and 
that gentleman felt himself, therefore, called upon 
to reply. He did so, defending New England, and 
contending that in every case in which measures 
had been taken by the general government favor- 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 245 

able to the West, they had been carried by New 
England votes. Mr. Webster was followed by 
Colonel Benton in reply, and Colonel JIayne suc- 
ceeded the latter. 

Into this speech Colonel Hayne threw his whole 
strength. It was a dashing, masterly effort, and 
displayed powers which exhibited him as an an- 
tagonist worthy of Daniel Webster. His speech, 
commenced on Thursday, was concluded on the 
following Monday. Mr. Webster rose to reply, 
but gave w^ay to a motion to adjourn, and on 
Tuesday, January 29th, commenced and con- 
cluded his reply. Neither of the parties in this 
oratorial combat disappointed their friends : both, 
indeed, exceeded expectation. While Colonel 
Hayne's speech was unanswered, the friends of 
Webster had their fears that, great as were his 
acknowledged talents, he was not equal to this 
peculiar description of encounter. The friends 
of Colonel Hayne were all elation — the New-Eng- 
landers w^ere, to say the least, sedate. But Daniel 
Webster proved, as ever, equal to any exigence. 
The Hall of the Senate was crowded as it nev(U' 
had been before, and the city of Washington was 
filled with strangers brought in by the rumors of 
the great debate — the attack of Hayne, and the 

21 H: 



246 LIFE OF 

expected reply of Webster. Gallantly did he de- 
fend New England ; ably did he manage the argu- 
mentative, and adroitly the personal and salient, 
portions of his speech. In variety of style — pa- 
thos, satire, ponderous argument, light raillery, 
animating apostrophe — Mr. AYebster never, on 
any other occasion, exceeded his reply to Colonel 
Hayne. The speech is too well known to require 
analysis here, even if analysis could do it justice ; 
and we make no extracts save the following — 
the conclusion and climax in effect : — 

" When my eyes shall be turned to behold for 
the last time the sun in heaven, may I not see 
him shining on the broken and dishonored frag- 
ments of a once-glorious Union ; on States disse- 
vered, discordant, belligerent ! on a land rent with 
civil feud, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal 
blood ! Let their last feeble and lingering glance 
rather behold the gorgeous ensign of the Kepublic, 
now known and honored throughout the earth, 
still high advanced, its arms and trophies stream- 
ing in their original lustre ; not a stripe erased or 
polluted, not a single star obscured ; bearing for 
its motto no such miserable interrogatory as 
'What is all this worth?' Nor those other words 
of delusion and folly, 'Liberty first and Union 



DANIEL AVEBSTEK. 1^47 

afterwards;' but everywhere, spread all over in 

characters of Uviiig light, blazing on its ani])le 

folds, as they float over the sea and over the land, 

and in every wind under the whole heavens, that 

other sentiment, dearer to every American heart, 

Lihertij and Union, noio and forever, one and insc- 
jparahle ! " 

Popular applause, and the discriminating praise 
of the few, formal thanks by State Legislatures, 
and spontaneous acknowledgments, followed this 
effort of Mr. AYebsters. His supporters pro- 
nounced him victor, and even the friends of Colonel 
Hayne claimed only that the combatants were 
equal. The fame of Daniel Webster stood higher 
than ever with his countrymen. But from all this 
applause the man of warm heart and intense domes- 
tic afi:ections turned to say, '^ How I icisli imj hro- 
tlier EzeMel had lived till after this speech, that I 
might hnow if he loould have been rj rati fed '/^ A 
few months before, while pleading a cause in Con- 
cord, New Hampshire, his health apparently good, 
his voice clear, full, and strong, and his argument 
evincing the possession of the highest faculties, 
Ezekiel Webster fell backward, aiid expired with- 
out a groan or a struggle. Mr. Webster always 
alluded to this brother w4th deep affection and the 



248 LIFE OF 

highest respect. In early hfe, as we have already 
seen, their sympathies and pursuits were identical ; 
and in after years, though in a sphere more cir- 
cumscribed than his brother, Ezekiel commanded 
high respect for his talents and personal worth and 
virtue. 

In the ^Yebster and Hayne debate, the subject 
of "nullification" was a principal theme; Colonel 
Hayne as the advocate of the nullification theory, 
Mr. Webster as its opponent. The subject soon 
came directly before the Senate. The people of 
South Carolina, through a convention called for 
the purpose, and by a vote of the Legislature after- 
wards, pronounced the Tariff Act unconstitutional, 
null and void, and the State was put in military 
array. Colonel Hayne resigned his seat in the 
Senate, and was elected Governor of the State; 
Mr. Calhoun resigned the Vice-Presidency of the 
United States, and was chosen Senator in place of 
Mr. Hayne. President Jackson, in December, 
1832, issued his famous proclamation against nul- 
lification. Governor Hayne issued a counter-pro- 
clamation. The friends of the President brought 
forward a bill, " making farther provision for the 
collection of the revenues," which gave the Presi- 
dent ample powers to meet an exigency like that 



DANIEL WEBSTKR. 249 

presented by the conduct of South Carohna. Mr 
Calhoun made, against this bill, and in support ol' 
a series of resolutions which he introduced, an 
able speech, defending his view of the rights of a 
State to annul unconstitutional acts of Conirress. 
Mr. Webster replied, defending the national ad- 
ministration. His aid was personally solicited by 
a member of General Jackson's Cabinet, and, on 
the day of his answer to Mr. Calhoun, he rode 
from his lodgings to the Capitol in the President's 
carriage. Jackson's private secretary had called 
upon him with a message, and as the carriage 
was at the door, it conveyed him to the Senate 
Chamber. Mr. Webster was, in this case, the 
recognised leader of the administration party ; 
the only man wdio could successfully cope with 
Mr. Calhoun. He o:ave his aid heartilv, and 
during the discussion of the bill, caused it to be 
amended in several important particulars. Mr. 
Webster's argument against nuUilication was one 
of his most important public acts, and will always 
be appealed to as a standard connnentary oi\ 
the Constitution. 

Supporting the President where right and duty 
demanded, Mr. Webster did not, therefore, h(\-i- 
tate to speak as decidedly, though courteously, 



250 LIFE OF 

against him when they differed. In the discussion 
of the Bank question, Mr. Webster argued in 
favor of the re-charter. The President, in 1833, 
removed the deposits of the United States from 
the National Bank. Mr, CLay brought forward a 
resolution, at the succeeding meeting of Congress, 
calhng upon the President for a copy of a paper 
said to have been read by him at a Cabinet meet- 
ing in relation to the subject. The President de- 
clined compliance ; denying the authority of the 
Senate to make any such call upon him. The 
contents of the paper were, however, public, and 
the Senate acted upon the subject without any 
official communication from the President. Reso- 
lutions of substantial censure were passed, on mo- 
tion of Mr. Clay, and against these the President 
sent to the Senate his protest. Against this, Mr. 
Webster made one of his most carefully-prepared 
speeches, and defended the privileges of the Se- 
nate, while he conceded to the President " honesty 
of motive and integrity of purpose." 

In the Currency debates, which continued during 
Mr. Yan Buren's administration, Mr. Webster took 
an important and leading part. But he clung with 
less tenacity than some other politicians to the 
idea of the absolute necessity of a United States 



D A N I E L ^y E TJ S T E R . 201 

Bank. What would liavu been liis t'()ur.<(3 had he 
remained in the Senate during President Tyler s 
term, we can now only conjecture; or how he 
would have proceeded under the repeated defeats 
of the Bank project brought forward in Congress 
and vetoed by Mr. Tyler. It is certain that he 
regarded the revival of the Bank controversy as a 
measure of questionable necessity and expediency ; 
and in a popular address, delivered in Boston, in 
1842, he said, "A Bank of the United States 
founded on a private subscription is out of the 
question. That is an obsolete idea. The country 
and the condition of thincrs have chanii'ed." Mr. 
Webster contended a2:ainst disturbance of the cur- 
rency, and the modes of negotiating exchanges 
and managing the revenues ; but after the change 
was made, he did not desire to contend for " obso- 
lete ideas." The experience of the country now 
shows that we are better without such an institu- 
tion. In like manner, Mr. Webster, though an 
advocate for the protection of domestic nianufnc^- 
tures, has made that question not paramount to 
all others, but co-important with them. lie has 
on all subjects recommended measures consonnnt 
with the general weal. His mind was too capa- 
cious, his views too catholic, to urge him to the 



252 LIFE OF 

carrying out of a theory at the expense of the 
practical interests of the country; or to argue 
that, because the government has certain constitu- 
tional powers, it is therefore necessary to exercise 
and test them, without regard to expediency, and 
in defiance of the wishes of a minority. 

The most important part of Mr. Webster's Con- 
gressional life was prior to 1838 ; and in that year 
certain citizens of Boston, the thew and sinew of 
that ancient city, tendered their Senator the com- 
pliment of a public dinner in Faneuil Hall. There 
were many such compliments paid him ; and with 
out desiring the eclat of such assemblages, which 
was really nothing to Daniel Webster, he could be 
grateful for the motives which prompted liis friends 
thus to honor him. No man had less fondness for 
j)arade than he ; and none was more heartily re- 
joiced to escape from the plaudits and acclama- 
tions of the crowd to the calm enjoyment of the 
society of his friends. Faneuil Hall has very 
many times echoes with his full, manly voice ; and 
when that was hushed forever, the weeping people 
there listened to the eulogies of those who loved 
and knew him best. 

In the year 1839, Mr. Webster visited Europe. 
The fame of his talents had preceded him ; and 



DANIEL VrEBSTEK. 253 

the appearance and ability of the man more tlian 
seconded all that had been reported of him. Xo 
official personage conld have received more atten- 
tion ; and no American was ever more gratified at 
his reception abroad. The attentions wliich he 
received were not so nuich formal as cordial. 
There was nothing of display, ])ut everything 
which hospitality conld dictate. Tlie landhol(k'rs 
of England welcomed a brother farmer ; statesmen 
and lawyers found in him their peer, and the Eng- 
lish people seemed to claim a pride and property 
in their transatlantic cousin; familiar as them- 
selves with all that is rich in British literature, or 
valuable in the history and experience of the mo- 
ther country. 

Having, previously to his voyage, declined to 
be considered a candidate for the Presidency of the 
United States, Mr. Webster returned to bear a 
very important part in the canvassing which ])re- 
ceded the election of General Harrison. His mag- 
nanimous character has been more than once exhi- 
bited in this manner, lie who never could be 
persuaded to make popular capital for himself, had 
never hesitated to sacrifice himself for others. He 
was too conscious of his own powers to oHcr them 
at retail on the hustings for the purchase of an 



09 



254 LIFE OF 

election. He was undoubtecllv satisfied that his 
services deserved the reward of an election to the 
Presidency; but he desired that others should 
award him his meed, and would not stoop to beg 
for it. 

He did not heartily second the nomination of 
Harrison, of Clay, in 1844, or of Taylor, in 1848 ; 
but to all three he lent his aid when they were 
made; having in view the success of the party 
which he believed could best promote the prospe- 
rity of the country. What would have been his 
course in the case of General Scott, had his health 
and life been spared, it is now impossible to tell. 
It would be a misrepresentation to say that Mr. 
Webster was not disappointed in the failure of his 
friends to secure his nomination, or that he ap- 
proved the selection of General Scott as the can- 
didate of his party. But we cannot go the length 
to believe that this disappointment preyed upon 
him with any fatal effect. He felt it, without a 
doubt ; for he would have been unjust to himself 
had he not been sensible that his forty years of 
public service had conferred substantial benefit 
and w^orld-wide renown upon his country, which 
the gift of the highest honors could not have re- 
paid. He would have honored the Presidency — 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 255 

it could have conferred no new honor u})on liiin. 
Had he lived, the zeal of his friends might liave 
diminished President Pierce's majority; or lie 
midit, with his ever-elastic manliness, have witli- 
drawn his name peremptorily, as he had done 
before. Now, it matters not; nor is it wurlh 
while to speculate upon the subject. 

Mr. Webster was called, l)y General Harrison, 
to a seat in his Cabinet. He was tendered tlic 
Secretaryship of the Treasury', but preferred the 
Department of State. In one short month, Geiu^- 
ral Harrison was no more. He died amid the 
profound regrets of the people, and the oHice of 
President was, for the hrst time in the history of 
the country, filled by the alternate provided ])y 
the Constitution. Mr. Tyler proved unacceptable 
to the party who had elected him. Tlie other 
members of the Cabinet felt it their duty to retire ; 
but Mr. Webster, contrary to the wishes of his 
party, and in spite of censure, and, from some 
cpiarters, unmerited oblocpiy, chose to remain. He 
had a duty to the whole country to fulfil ; a sense 
of honor to satisfy, with Avhicli a hasty ix'tirement 
would not have been compatil)le. With no jxn'- 
sonal ends to satisfy, but at a sacrifice to liiuiscU; 
he remained attached to an unpopular adniinistra- 



256 LIFE OF 

tion till he conferred upon the Presidency of Mr. 
Tyler the honor of adjusting the difficulties with 
Great Britain, which had baffled all preceding 
administrations. The treaty of Washington, ne- 
gotiated by x\shburton and Webster, gave him as 
high a rank in diplomacy as he had already 
reached in other departments of professional and 
public life. Other troublesome questions, with 
different powers, were also satisfactorily disposed 
of; and then Mr. Webster retired, without ardent 
popular applause, but with the high respect of the 
judicious of all parties; a respect which already 
ripens into posthumous fame. 

A mere party tactician would have fled the 
White House when Mr. Tyler's star declined, and 
contended — probably successfully — for the next 
nomination. He might have led the Whig oppo- 
sition to their own impracticable nominee : but 
Mr. Webster was no tactician. Had he been, a 
second opportunity was open. Mr. Tyler's heart 
w^as set upon the annexation of Texas ; and this 
measure, though very unpalatable to a j^ortion of 
the Confederacy, has proved popular with the 
larger party. Mr. Webster might have remained 
in the Cabinet and promoted this object, if he 
could have sacrificed his convictions to his ambi- 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 2o7 



tioii ; and the advantage wliicli did not accrue to 
President Tyler might have fallen to his Secre- 
tary. But he left office ; and, as he left, Avnrnod 
the country of the impending event; hut his 
warnings were not heeded. 

Mr. Clay was nominated ; and Mr. AVebster, as 
he had done before, lent his influence in favor of 
the nominee of the Whig party. Mr. Polk was 
elected, and through his administration Mr. Web- 
ster was again in the Senate — his last term. Tlie 
party to which he belonged was in the minority; 
but, tliongh contending for principles, they did 
nothing in a factious spirit. Mr. Wel^ster was 
opposed to the Mexican war, and opposed to the 
treaty l>y which it was closed ; opposed, as he de- 
clared, on the ground that the new territory ac- 
quired would be an embarrassment, disturb the 
equilibrium of representation, and destroy the just 
relation between the Senate and the House, hy 
bringing in new States with sparse populations, 
each with its two Senators, without such a num- 
ber of Kepresentatives as would bear a due pro- 
portion to the new mem1x;rs of the other Houses. 
On the subject of slavery, while he adhered to the 
principles of the Constitution, which f )r])id inter- 
ference of the General Government with slavery 



258 LIFE OF 

ill the original States, he protested against its ex- 
tension : " I have made up iny mind, for one, that 
under no circumstances will I consent to the fur- 
ther extension of the area of slavery in the United 
States, or to the further increase of slave repre- 
sentation in the House of Representatives." These 
sentiments Mr. Webster maintained, and frequently 
repeated, and in accordance with these he shaped 
his actions, while he defended the " Compromise 
Measures." Different men, of different views, look 
upon his course according to their own ideas of 
his consistency or inconsistency. This is not the 
place to argue the question ; but we must concede 
that the man who lost no occasion to repeat his 
objections to the annexation of Texas, to the Mex- 
ican war, and to any increase of the slave area, 
could not be so weak as to expect that his advo- 
cacy of the " Compromise " would be a successful 
bid for the nomination as President. We must 
acquit him of any such motive; and, however 
opinions may differ as to the wisdom or right of 
his course, his patriotism, sincerity, and devotion 
to the wdiole country, cannot be impugned. 

During this Senatorial term, Mr. Webster was 
called upon to speak the obituary of his distin- 
guished friend and opponent, Calhoun, and of 



DANIEL wi:bstj:k. 259 

General Taylor, President of tlio Vuhcd >^t;\ie^. 
His son Edward, a major in the Ma.^sachusctts 
Volunteers, died in Mexico, in January, 1848, and 
his daughter, Julia Webster Appleton, in April of 
the same year. These bereavements greatly af- 
flicted him, and, with his increasing age, gave a 
deeper shade of pensive sternness to his face, and 
strengthened the religious tone of his character. 

Upon the accession of Mr. Fillmore to the Pre- 
sidency, by the death of General Taylor, Mr. 
Webster was called again to the post of Secretarv 
of State. In this second term of his service in 
that important office, Mr. Webster chiefly distin- 
guished himself by his reply to the Austrian 
Charge, Chevalier Hulseman. In that document, 
Mr. Webster defined and defended the American 
policy towards Hungary. Its manly tone makes 
the American heart bound with natural pride, and 
true men every where respond to its noble doc- 
trines. In his intercourse with Kossuth, the Hun- 
garian exile, Mr. Webster showed that he had not 
forgotten the sentiments which he had uttered 
years before upon the Greek question. Without 
committing the government of which he was a 
member, the aged statesman made his sjinpathies 
evident with all the fire of youth. 



260 LIFE OF 



CHAPTEE XIII. 

Elms Farm— Marshfield— Close of Mr. Webster's Life— Ills Illness 
and Death— His Burial— His Will— Religious Opinions — Con- 
clusion. 

"Elms Farm" is the name of the place in 
Franldin, New Hampshire, where Mr. Webster 
spent the greater part of his youth. It is about 
three miles distant from his birthplace, and, alto- 
a:ether, contains about nine hundred acres. It 
descended to Ezekiel and Daniel from their father, 
and was retained by the latter from filial affection. 
It is almost exclusively a grazing farm, and here 
Mr. AYebster indulged his taste for the rearing of 
herds of the finest cattle. Upon this farm he had 
a tenant, or yeoman, whose name is John Taylor. 
Hither he was wont annually to repair, to refresh 
himself amid the scenes of his youth, and visit 
the graves of " the dear kindred blood " whom he 
loved so well. The scenery is romantic, and every 
part of it is sacred to the early associations of the 



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DANIEL WEBSTER. 2G1 

siihject of our memoir. The most elevated spot 
upon it has a touch of the Puritan rliaractcr of 
the family, in the name which it bears — " Pis-ah's 
Top." At this point the view is magnificent, and 
from this spot Mr. Webster was wont, at his annual 
visits, to survey the scenes of his youth. Th(; 
last visit which he paid to this place was in h^ol. 
While there, some twenty men were engaged in 
making hay, and the aged statesman, then in his 
70th year, declared that " he could pitch more hay 
in an hour than any man in the crowd," and 
throwing aside his coat, he showed that the dex- 
terity of his youth had not forsaken him. 

Agriculture was a passion with Daniel Wel)ster. 
' But the chief of his science and experience he 
exhibited on the estate in Marshfield. About the 
year 1826, Mr. Webster's attention was lirst called 
to the vicinity, on account of its opportunities for 
open air, exercise, and annisement, of which he 
was always fond. Successive visits attached him 
to the spot; and he made the lirst purchase of 
land there in 1827, luiying the house at which he 
had visited, with aljout one hundred aud fittv 
acres of land. By the purchase of tract after 
tract, Mr. Webster swelled his domain to about 
two thousand acres; for the possession of nmch 



2G2 LIFE OF 

land seemed to be a passion with him; and at 
Marshiield, land could, twenty-five years ago, be 
bought at very low prices. Under his culture, the 
quality of the soil was so much improved that its 
products were increased an hundred-fold. While 
he advanced the profitable character of his terri- 
tory, he added, by art, to its natural features. By 
his own hand, or under his immediate direction, 
over a hundred thousand ornamental and forest 
trees were planted ; and these were so disposed as 
to beautify the landscape, and present, at every 
turn, some harmonious or unexpected feature. Of 
fruit-trees, he also planted thousands of the best 
varieties which the soil and climate w^ould support. 
The Avhole farm is so intersected with roads and 
avenues, walks and pathways, that, without 
interfering with its utility, the place appears like 
an extensive pleasure-ground. Ride or walk in 
what direction you choose, and everywhere is 
visible the evidence of care and culture. The 
natural features of Marshfield are improved by the 
art of landscape gardening, on a grand scale. 
Even the lakes, of which there are three near the 
house, Mr. Webster managed to make more beau- 
tiful by art. The larger one he colonised with 
wild geese, by constructing in it artificial islands^ 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 2G3 

like the chosen haunts of the hird in its freedom. 
Every possible variety of poidtry is inchided 
among the stock of the place. As to cattle, the 
raisino; of which was his favorite aiLricultural 
amusement, he had hundreds of the choicest stock ; 
and even a few South American lamas added 
varietv to his assortment. 

Mr. Webster was no ^"exclusive" improver. 
Many who have a passion for such things, have a 
pride, also, in keeping their choice varietici^ to 
themselves. He had none of this small vanity ; 
but scattered with a liberal hand among his 
neighbors, the benefits of his experience, and tlie 
advantages of his improvements. At Marsli field, 
his tenant, or superintendent, was Mr. Porter 
Wright; his fisherman, Mr. Setli Peterson. The 
latter was no unimportant personage; holding the 
same post of honor that the huntsman held in the 
olden time. Mr. Webster was not onlv admired, 
but beloved by his neighbors and townsmen ; and 
the feeling of the void that his loss created, wa.^ 
well expressed by one of them, who said, when he 
w\as laid in his grave, " How lonesome tlie world 

seems !" 

The main part of Mr. Webstc>r's mansion at 
Marshfield, was built in 177-1. J^v his addiiiuus, 



264 LIFE OF 

and the improvements which he made upon the 
original building, it was doubled in size, and ren- 
dered perfect in convenience. The whole house is 
furnished in admirable taste ; but the large Gothic 
library, filled with choice books, was the chief 
feature. This collection did not include his law 
library, which is in Boston ; nor his agricultural 
works, which w^ere in a separate building. The 
library was built and furnished after designs 
drawn by his daughter Julia; and is in harmony 
wdth her father's character, and the purpose for 
which it was erected. The house is full of choice 
objects of art, portraits and busts of himself and 
of his distinguished friends, and his relatives; and 
many of the masterpieces of ancient and modern 
art. 

When Mr. Webster first came to reside at 
Marshfield, it was as a widower. To the lady 
who survives him, he was married in 1832. She 
'was the life of his Marshfield home ; and, with 
his children, shared his warm affections. Except 
Fletcher, who survives, all his children preceded 
him to the grave. The six volumes of his works 
are dedicated to the children of his brother Eze- 
kiel, to his sons Edward and Fletcher, to his 
daughter Julia, to his friends, Isaac P. Davis and 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 2G5 

J. W. Paige, and to Caroline Le Roy Wel).ster, liis 
"dearly-beloved wife," as "a tri})ute of liis nftpc- 
tion, and some acknowledgment of the deep inte- 
rest which she had taken" in tlie productions of 
his intellect. 

To Marshiield, endeared to liim ])y every consi- 
deration wdiich can make an earthly possession 
valuable, Daniel Webster, in 1852, retired to die. 
We cannot better describe the close of his life, 
than in the eloquent words of Hon. Ivufus Choate : 
" In the last months of his life, the whole affec- 
tionateness of his nature, his consideration of 
others, his gentleness, his desire to make them 
happy, and to see them happy, seemed to come 
out in more and more beautiful and hn])itual ex- 
pression than ever before. The long days public 
tasks w^ere felt to be done — the cares, the uncer- 
tainties, the mental conflicts of high place, were 
ended, and he came home to recover himself for 
the few years which he might still expe(^t would 
be his before he should go hence to l)e here no 
more: and there, I am assured, and fully believe, 
no unbecoming regrets pursued him; no discon- 
tent, as for injustice suftered, or expectations 
nnfulfilled; no self-reproach for anything done, or 
anything omitted, by himself; no irritation, no 






266 LIFE OF ^ 

peevishness unworthy of his noble nature; but 
instead, love and hope for his country, when she 
became the subject of conversation, and for all 
around him, the dearest and the most indiiferent; 
for all breathing things about him the overflow 
constant growing in gentleness and benevolence 
of the kindest heart, parental, patriarchal affec- 
tions, seeming to become more natural, warm, and 
communicative. Softer and yet brighter grew the 
tints on the sky of parting day, and the last lin- 
gering rays, more even than the glories of noon, 
announced how divine was the source from which 
they proceeded, how incapable to be quenched, 
how certain to rise on a mornino- which no nidit 
should follow." 

On the morning of Sunday, October 24th, 1852, 
Daniel Webster passed away. He had lived out the 
appointed term; having, at the time of his decease, 
nearly completed his seventj^-first year. While 
riding, in the spring preceding his death, he was 
thrown from his carriage by tlie breaking of a 
bolt, and from this injury it is supposed he never 
fully recovered. The innnediate cause of his 
death was a disease of the liver, ending in a 
hemorrhage consequent upon his malady. For 
some time before his death, the papers contained 



DANIEL WEBSTKK. 2G7 

contradictory reports; all indicating, liowcvcr, to 
those who rememl^ered the age he liad renelied, 
his approaching end. When it was announced hy 
authority of his family, that his name, wiiich had 
been nsed in the pending political canvass, nuist 
be disconnected from that subject, the public were 
prepared for the melancholy intelligence which 
soon followed. 

When Mr. Webster could no lons-er ride or walk 
about, he still continued to exhibit an ailectionate 
interest in his dependents, as well as in his iamily. 
Even the noble cattle which he had roared he 
caused to be driven up to the door of the mansion, 
that he might look at their lair })roportions, and 
gratify the passion which he had always possessed 
for agricultural pursuits. From his window he 
surveyed the ocean, and caused a light to be hung 
at the mast-head of his favorite vacht, that lie 
might observe in the darkness that it was still 
there. His conversation had turned oftcMi, through 
his life, upon religions themes, and in his last days 
thej^ were frequently introduced In' him. Vet he 
remembered and attended to the details of his 
farm, and to his family disbursements, and spoke 
understandingly upon the concerns of State, lie 
caused memorials to be prepared and presented to 



268 LIFE OF 

his friends, and in very many particulars exhibited 
the possession of a full knowledge and interest in 
the subjects which had been the occupation of his 
leisure, or of his hours of labor. He caused the 
pay-roll of his farm and household servants to be 
made up and cancelled. Yet in all this there was 
not so much a clinging to earth, as another and 
better motive — a thoughtful, curious, anxious train 
of reflection, which was exhibited in his last 
words. 

On the Thursday preceding his death, he gave 
directions to his men upon the farm relative to 
their daily progress, and received his mail, direct- 
ing the answers to many of the letters. His last 
autograph letter was directed to the President of 
the United States. On this day, also, he executed 
his will, and completed various other matters of 
business which he thought it necessary should be 
attended to. In this will, he devised the Marsh- 
iield property to his son, Fletcher, to be held by 
trustees, and secured to his grandson, Daniel Web- 
ster. He made affectionate provision for his 
widow, even to the designation of her tomb by his 
side at Marshfield ; the two being exactly of the 
same size and form. Many of his friends are re- 
membered kindly in his will^ and all persons men- 



DANIEL WEIJSTKR. 2G9 

tioned are spoken oi' with ivspcct and aflrctinn, 
even to the fonr colored servants, wlioni he had 
pnrchased and manumitted; all, he declares, 
"well-deserving," and upon none of them is a 
demand to be made for any portion (jI" thuir [lur- 
chase-money. 

On Tuesday, he remained nearly all day in a state 
of unconsciousness, or of torpor, occasionally rally- 
ing. During this day, he presented his jjliysician, 
Dr. Jeffries, with his w^tch, as a token of his re^-ard 
for his unwearied attention to him during his ill- 
ness. He said, "Doctor, you will feel the pulses 
of many patients by that w^atch ; you will fed my 
pulse many times, yet, by it." The Doctor looked 
sad, and made no reply. Mr. AVebster added, 
" You look gloomy. Doctor, but }'0u need not l)e 
alarmed ; I shall be wdth you to-morrow." 

On Saturday afternoon, it was distinctly an- 
nounced to him that his end was near. Ih- re- 
ceived the inthnation without emotion, and caused 
his wife and the other female members of his family 
to be called, to each of wdiom he si)oke words of 
liirew^ell and rehgious consolation. The male mem- 
bers of his family, including his farmers and ser- 
vants, and the friends wdio were in the house, 
were next summoned, lie addressed al! ly name, 






270 LIFE OF 

and, referring to his past relations with them, took 
an affectionate leave of all. He enjoined Mr. 
Peter Harvey, and others, not to leave Marshfield 
till he was " a dead man." Then, having gone 
through with his duty to all around him, his 
thoughts reverted to himself, and he said, '' On 
the 24th of October, all that is mortal of Daniel 
Webster will be no more ! " He then prayed in 
his natural full, clear, and strong voice, ending 
with the petition, " Heavenly Father, forgive my 
sins, and receive me to thyself through Christ 
Jesus." 

The subject of death had long been in his 
thoughts, not only as an event for which he must 
prepare, but also as a thing for examination and 
analysis. He appeared to be desirous to note 
every change, not only in his bodily condition, but 
in the alterations which would take place in his 
sentiments and emotions. For this reason, he 
tested, to the last, his capacity for business and 
detail, in order to observe how long the power of 
accustomed objects would continue to impress 
him ; and undoubtedly he discovered, by the 
changes within himself, the fatal termination, 
before his physicians had lost their hope. It was 
a mental phenomenon which we hope to see 



DANIEL WEBSTKR. 271 

treated by those who had the best op])()rtuiiily tu (jb- 
serve it: the great mind of Daniel Webster, stand- 
ing, as it were, aside and superior, and noting 
critically the struggle in himselt between life and 
death. The following incident illustrates this : 
While lying in a half-dreamy state, apparently 
unconscious, except when addressed, of what wan 
passing around him, the room still and solcnni as 
the tomb, he suddenly broke forth, not in the low, 
weak voice of an invahd, but in accents as louil, 
clear, and thrilling, as ever echoed through the 
Senate Chamber, "Life! Life! Death! l)(\'ith ! 
lioiD curious it is r It pierced to the farthest 
apartment of the house, startling those who liuard 
it, like the sound of a trumpet. Shrouded from 
the outer world, that vast mind was weighing the 
vaster themes, upon which its conclusions can 
never in this world be known. 

A short time before his death, his head became 
cold. He feared that his consciousness or his 
reason would leave him. He said, '' Lite till 
death; I wish to retain my senses till I die." His 
son, standing by, said, "Father, you have your 
senses perfectly. Your conversation is rational." 
He then said, " Poetry — Gray." llis words wore 
fe^v, fro/n extreme exhaustion. His son repeated 



272 LIFE OF 

two stanzas of Gray's Elegy. " That is poetry ; 
all right," said he. He evidently wished to test 
his own mental condition. Finding that the well- 
known lines of the poet revived the old emotions, 
he was assured that reason was still on her throne. 
Hence his remark, "All right still, my son." He 
spoke of the difficulty of dying, and Dr. Jeffries 
repeated to him, " Though I walk through the 
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, 
for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they 
comfort me." Mr. Webster instantly rejoined : 
" The fact ! the fact ! That is what I w^ant ! Thy 
rod ! thy rod ! Thy staff! thy staff!" He wished 
to know whether he was then actually passing the 
dark valley ; that, with the full possession of his 
reason, he might note the instant of his departure. 
He sunk into unconsciousness for a time; and 
when he revived, his surprise, when he found 
himself still alive, was expressed in the exclama- 
tion, " I STILL LIVE !" They were the last words 
he uttered. An hour of perfect quiet succeeded ; 
and at about two o'clock in the morning, he passed 
so quietly away, that it was difficult to fix the 
precise moment of his departure. 



In every possible mode, the nation testified its 



DANIEL WEBSTKK. 27.'] 

grief, and honored tlie memory ul" the (k-piiiteJ. 
He was buried in an unostentatious manner, at 
Marshfield, without lorni or parade ; tlie clcrLrv- 
man of his parish, Rev. Eheiie/A'r Alden, (M)n(hictin"- 
the services, at the request of the deceased. Ki.Ldit 
or ten thousand persons were present at tlie obse- 
quies; and of all these, it could truly ]xi said that 
they were his " friends and neigh]x)rs." By such 
alone had he desired that his funeral should be 
attended. 

He still lives! Not only in his legal and 
political knowledge and services — or in tlie 
memory of his private loves and friendships — ur 
in the various benefits in secular matters whirh 
he has conferred upon his country and his race: 
but he lives in this declaration of his iaith, drawn 
up and signed by him a few da}'s before his death : 

'''Lord, I believe, help iJiou mine JDiMlrf' — 
Philosophical argument, especially that drawn 
from the vastness of the Universe, in couq^arison 
with the insignificance of this globe, has somrtimes 
shaken my reason for the faith which is in nie; 
but my heart has ahvays assured and re-assured 
me, that the Gosjxd of Jesus Christ must Ik' a 
Divine Reality. The Sermon on the Mount 



274 LIFE OF 

cannot be a merely human production. This 
belief enters into the very depth of my conscience. 
The whole history of man proves it. 

'' Daxiel Webster." 

Daniel Webster was not a faultless man. We 
do not present him as such. But we have no 
need to draw from the past the infirmities of his 
character. Humanly estimated, they were far 
less than his virtues. The foundation of his elo- 
quence was in his intimate acquaintance with the 
sublime language of the Bible ; and his religious 
character and impressions gave Daniel Webster a 
moral dignity above all mere intellectual rank. 
He could introduce, as in the case of the heirs of 
the Girard Estate, a relio-ious aro'ument into a 
legal plea, and do no violence to his subject — 
he had the manly courage, even amid scoffers, to 
confess his faith. He could converse on religious 
subjects without affectation or awkv/ardness, 
showing that the source of his words was in his 
heart. He returned, at the last, to the love of his 
youth ; and as his day waned, renewed the early 
vows with which he took upon himself the pro- 
fession of his faith; but at no time was he a 
scoffer, or indifferent to religious ordinances. He 



D A X I E L W K n S T i: li . 21 ") 

died in the communion of tlie Protestant Kj.i^ - 
pal Church. We close our memoir ol' Daniel 
Webster with a word of eulogy iVom his Iricnd 
J. Prescott ILdl, of New York ; and we romnienfl 
it to our young readers, as indicating one mode in 
which all may imitate Dam'el Webster: 

"I have partaken of his innoeent an<l manly 
amusements; I have walked with bim alone, at 
twilight, upon tlie shore of the • far-resounding 
sea;' I have seen liim in the Fornm, and in the 
Senate-cluunber — liis gigantic intellect towering 
above all his compeers; and tu<i/tr hu circum' 
stances, and on no occasion, did I ever I'ntnr him fn 
forijet Ids own dbjinfi/, or cease to impress, if not 
overwhelm, with the sense of his surpassing great- 
ness. From las lips I never heard an i r revere nf, a 
l^rofane, or an uriseerni// expression; while his 
plaj'ful wit, his deep i)bilos()phy, I lis varied ac- 
quirements, and unrivalled powers of conversation, 
are among the richest trea^sures of m\- recollec- 
tion." 



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